HARI SREENIVASAN: In the day’s other news: President Obama defended his record fighting terrorism in his last major national security speech before leaving office.

Mr. Obama traveled to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, home to the Special Operations and Central Commands. The president told the troops that he’s led a relentless assault on the Islamic State, but he also warned against targeting Muslims in the name of battling extremism.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The United States of America is not a place where some citizens have to withstand greater scrutiny or carry a special I.D. card or prove that they are not an enemy from within.

We’re a country that has bled and struggled and sacrificed against that kind of discrimination.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The president also denounced any use of torture, defended drone strikes and urged again that the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be closed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In Iraq, army units made a new push toward the center of Mosul today. Islamic State fighters had tied up the Iraqi forces on the southeastern side of the city for nearly a month. But, this morning, an armored division launched a fresh assault. A senior commander says they moved within a mile of the Tigris River, backed up by U.S. airstrikes.

HARI SREENIVASAN: A human rights group is accusing China’s Communist Party of systematically using torture and coerced confessions against members accused of corruption. It’s part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign, now in its fourth year.

Human Rights Watch says it found widespread abuse at interrogation and detention sites that are outside China’s official criminal justice system.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Back in this country, crews have now searched nearly all of the Oakland, California, warehouse that went up in flames during a music party, leaving at least 36 people dead. Officials say they do not expect to find more bodies.

Overnight, firefighters stabilized parts of the gutted building to continue the search today. They say they hope to finish the job tonight. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The U.S. Supreme Court sided today with Samsung, in a high-profile patent fight with Apple. All eight justices voted to throw out a $399 million judgment against Samsung for copying features of Apple’s iPhone. The high court said the award was too large, and ordered a federal appeals panel to come up with a new amount.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Wall Street edged higher again today, with telecom companies leading the way. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 35 points to close at 19251. The Nasdaq rose 24, and the S&P 500 added seven.

HARI SREENIVASAN: In the day’s other news: President Obama defended his record fighting terrorism in his last major national security speech before leaving office.

Mr. Obama traveled to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, home to the Special Operations and Central Commands. The president told the troops that he’s led a relentless assault on the Islamic State, but he also warned against targeting Muslims in the name of battling extremism.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The United States of America is not a place where some citizens have to withstand greater scrutiny or carry a special I.D. card or prove that they are not an enemy from within.

We’re a country that has bled and struggled and sacrificed against that kind of discrimination.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The president also denounced any use of torture, defended drone strikes and urged again that the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be closed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In Iraq, army units made a new push toward the center of Mosul today. Islamic State fighters had tied up the Iraqi forces on the southeastern side of the city for nearly a month. But, this morning, an armored division launched a fresh assault. A senior commander says they moved within a mile of the Tigris River, backed up by U.S. airstrikes.

HARI SREENIVASAN: A human rights group is accusing China’s Communist Party of systematically using torture and coerced confessions against members accused of corruption. It’s part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign, now in its fourth year.

Human Rights Watch says it found widespread abuse at interrogation and detention sites that are outside China’s official criminal justice system.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Back in this country, crews have now searched nearly all of the Oakland, California, warehouse that went up in flames during a music party, leaving at least 36 people dead. Officials say they do not expect to find more bodies.

Overnight, firefighters stabilized parts of the gutted building to continue the search today. They say they hope to finish the job tonight. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The U.S. Supreme Court sided today with Samsung, in a high-profile patent fight with Apple. All eight justices voted to throw out a $399 million judgment against Samsung for copying features of Apple’s iPhone. The high court said the award was too large, and ordered a federal appeals panel to come up with a new amount.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Wall Street edged higher again today, with telecom companies leading the way. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 35 points to close at 19251. The Nasdaq rose 24, and the S&P 500 added seven.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-in-final-national-security-speech-obama-touts-fight-against-terror/feed/02:32In our news wrap Tuesday, President Obama gave his last major national security speech, defending his record on fighting terrorism while maintaining American ideals. Addressing troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Mr. Obama said he had overseen a “shift” in U.S. efforts to combat terror. Also, in Iraq, anti-Islamic State army units made a new push toward the center of Mosul.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio HARI SREENIVASAN: In the day&#8217;s other news: President Obama defended his record fighting terrorism in his last major national security speech before leaving office. Mr. Obama traveled to MacDill Air Force Base in Ta PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-in-final-national-security-speech-obama-touts-fight-against-terror/In Liberia, private management of public schools draws scrutinyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/iywPMZMy7n4/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/liberia-private-management-public-schools-draws-scrutiny/#respondTue, 06 Dec 2016 23:30:46 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200508

JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: how one for-profit school model is being tested to help revitalize a school system in West Africa.

Our story is in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves with a history marked by suffering, including two recent civil wars and the Ebola epidemic.

Today, the government is trying to rebuild a shattered nation, but a move to employ a for-profit American education company has drawn controversy.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports as part of our weekly education series on Making the Grade.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It’s Friday morning, and the children at this public elementary school are singing patriotic songs that honor their country’s founding by freed American slaves.

And as the U.S.-inspired flag is being raised, so too are hopes about how public education can be quickly and dramatically improved. These students are part of a grand experiment to see if a private for-profit U.S.-based company can turn things around in a nation utterly destroyed by a 14-year long civil war and a recent battle with Ebola.

The president of Liberia has called the country’s education system a mess. What did she mean? Consider this statistic: In 2013, not one of 25,000 high school graduates in this country managed to pass the college entrance exam for the University of Liberia.

The experiment to bring in private partners was designed by Education Minister George Werner, who took office 15 months ago, hired by the president, he says, to act quickly.

GEORGE WERNER, Education Minister, Liberia: If we stayed the course, followed the traditional ways of doing things, we wouldn’t catch up with our neighboring counterparts.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Werner had been impressed during a visit to Kenya, where the U.S. company Bridge International Academies operates more than 350 private schools.

In Liberia, where average annual household income is less than $500, Werner knew most families could not afford the monthly $6 fee that Bridge charges per child in those other countries. But he had an idea.

GEORGE WERNER: What if we had a hybrid for public and private? There are certain things that the private sector does better than the public sector. Government can come up with the policies, but management systems and service delivery, often, the private sector does better than the government.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Werner hired seven private organizations to run a total of 94 primary schools. Bridge, the only for-profit, runs 24 of them.

Josh Nathan is the company’s academic director.

JOSH NATHAN, Academic Director, Bridge International Academies: What the government has done in Liberia is quite courageous. They’ve said, we’re struggling with providing children this basic right, so what we want to do is look around, look inside Liberia and outside Liberia, at other people who are succeeding in providing children with an excellent education.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The government agreed to pay the companies directly, so education remains free for families. The companies also provide uniforms, which are required at public schools and whose cost keeps many from attending. When we visited the Bridge school in Kendaja, the semester was only two weeks underway, and many of the uniforms had not yet arrived.

MAGDALENE BROWN, Principal, Bridge School, Kendaja: Today is a wonderful day for us too.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Principal Magdalene Brown said the improvements were already very apparent. For one thing, there’s a much longer school day. Last year, it was just four hours a day.

MAGDALENE BROWN: Bridge has us come to school much earlier, like we at 7:30, and then Bridge have us stay on until 3:30 every day. And that means the children will learn better.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Even the students seem to like it more, including 15-year-old Mercy Freeman.

MERCY FREEMAN, Teachers Union: We come to school on time. We sit in class.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And school actually runs like a school?

MERCY FREEMAN: Yes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: There are also new rules, such as no more corporal punishment. And along with new textbooks, every teacher is given a computer tablet and is required to stick to pre-loaded lesson plans.

Critics of this so-called school-in-a-box approach say it encourages robotic teaching and has allowed Bridge in other countries to hire cheaper, less qualified instructors. That’s less of an issue in Liberia, where Bridge schools retrain teachers who are already working in the school system and where many had their own education disrupted by the civil war.

In this building, teachers seemed grateful for the guidance.

Amos Jumanine has taught for seven years, but says he was a late bloomer.

AMOS JUMANINE, Teacher: I was 17 years when I started ABCs.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You went to kindergarten learning your ABCs when you were 17?

AMOS JUMANINE: Yeah, 17.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He is hopeful the new partnership will be good for the students. But he is adamant on one thing that needs to change: Teachers need to be paid more money, especially now that they’re required to work longer hours.

AMOS JUMANINE: I cannot afford to buy food for myself.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Financially, it’s very difficult?

AMOS JUMANINE: Yes, financially.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Very difficult.

AMOS JUMANINE: Very difficult.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Teachers in Liberia earn about $100 a month, and many say they take second jobs just to make ends meet. That contributes to one of the biggest problems in Liberian schools: chronic teacher absenteeism.

Not only are teachers routinely absent. Many really never existed, just their names on paychecks issued by the schools.

JOSH NATHAN: The president herself has acknowledged that this is a system that is really a mess.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Josh Nathan says the Bridge schools use software in the teachers’ tablets to track their daily attendance.

JOSH NATHAN: We think this is incredibly important to creating accountability and being able to watch every single day, where are our teachers, are they where they need to be?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For their part, the teachers union is strongly opposed to the partnership program. It points out that these new schools have smaller class size, around 45 to 55 pupils, and receive about $10 to $15 more per student than regular public schools.

Union leaders say their teachers could get even better outcomes than Bridge if they were given that extra money and smaller classes.

If you had the right conditions and a better salary, a lot of the problem would be solved?

MARY MULBAH, Teachers Union: Yes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And when you argued this, what were you told?

MARY MULBAH: The ministry, they’re not even listening to the teachers.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Mary Mulbah blames corruption at the ministry for hiring the ghost teachers and alleges the ministry is using its purges to target union activists.

Immanuel Morris, who was in a government program to train and hire new teachers, says his name was deleted.

Are you a ghost?

IMMANUEL MORRIS, Union Activist: I’m not a ghost, and I can prove that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They’re calling you a ghost.

IMMANUEL MORRIS: That is what I’m saying.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And you’re not a ghost?

IMMANUEL MORRIS: I’m not a ghost.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Union leaders also question whether such programs could be scaled up to serve the 2,750 elementary schools across the country. Minister Werner knows there are risks, but says the government has a moral obligation to take drastic measures.

GEORGE WERNER: It’s not a panacea. And it may just not work. But we should not just fold our arms and do nothing.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Sixty-one-year-old Marie Jaynes couldn’t agree more. She herself had to drop out of school in fourth grade. She now sells water at the side of the road to support her three grandchildren, their parents killed in the civil war.

Jaynes says the new school will give her grandchildren a better life than she has had.

MARIE JAYNES, Grandparent: What hope for them is to go far in school, for them to know the importance of school.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They are the first of three generations in her family that might enjoy the privileges of at least a primary school education.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Kendaja, Liberia.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A version of this story aired on the PBS program “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.”

Fred’s reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: how one for-profit school model is being tested to help revitalize a school system in West Africa.

Our story is in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves with a history marked by suffering, including two recent civil wars and the Ebola epidemic.

Today, the government is trying to rebuild a shattered nation, but a move to employ a for-profit American education company has drawn controversy.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports as part of our weekly education series on Making the Grade.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It’s Friday morning, and the children at this public elementary school are singing patriotic songs that honor their country’s founding by freed American slaves.

And as the U.S.-inspired flag is being raised, so too are hopes about how public education can be quickly and dramatically improved. These students are part of a grand experiment to see if a private for-profit U.S.-based company can turn things around in a nation utterly destroyed by a 14-year long civil war and a recent battle with Ebola.

The president of Liberia has called the country’s education system a mess. What did she mean? Consider this statistic: In 2013, not one of 25,000 high school graduates in this country managed to pass the college entrance exam for the University of Liberia.

The experiment to bring in private partners was designed by Education Minister George Werner, who took office 15 months ago, hired by the president, he says, to act quickly.

GEORGE WERNER, Education Minister, Liberia: If we stayed the course, followed the traditional ways of doing things, we wouldn’t catch up with our neighboring counterparts.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Werner had been impressed during a visit to Kenya, where the U.S. company Bridge International Academies operates more than 350 private schools.

In Liberia, where average annual household income is less than $500, Werner knew most families could not afford the monthly $6 fee that Bridge charges per child in those other countries. But he had an idea.

GEORGE WERNER: What if we had a hybrid for public and private? There are certain things that the private sector does better than the public sector. Government can come up with the policies, but management systems and service delivery, often, the private sector does better than the government.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Werner hired seven private organizations to run a total of 94 primary schools. Bridge, the only for-profit, runs 24 of them.

Josh Nathan is the company’s academic director.

JOSH NATHAN, Academic Director, Bridge International Academies: What the government has done in Liberia is quite courageous. They’ve said, we’re struggling with providing children this basic right, so what we want to do is look around, look inside Liberia and outside Liberia, at other people who are succeeding in providing children with an excellent education.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The government agreed to pay the companies directly, so education remains free for families. The companies also provide uniforms, which are required at public schools and whose cost keeps many from attending. When we visited the Bridge school in Kendaja, the semester was only two weeks underway, and many of the uniforms had not yet arrived.

MAGDALENE BROWN, Principal, Bridge School, Kendaja: Today is a wonderful day for us too.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Principal Magdalene Brown said the improvements were already very apparent. For one thing, there’s a much longer school day. Last year, it was just four hours a day.

MAGDALENE BROWN: Bridge has us come to school much earlier, like we at 7:30, and then Bridge have us stay on until 3:30 every day. And that means the children will learn better.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Even the students seem to like it more, including 15-year-old Mercy Freeman.

MERCY FREEMAN, Teachers Union: We come to school on time. We sit in class.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And school actually runs like a school?

MERCY FREEMAN: Yes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: There are also new rules, such as no more corporal punishment. And along with new textbooks, every teacher is given a computer tablet and is required to stick to pre-loaded lesson plans.

Critics of this so-called school-in-a-box approach say it encourages robotic teaching and has allowed Bridge in other countries to hire cheaper, less qualified instructors. That’s less of an issue in Liberia, where Bridge schools retrain teachers who are already working in the school system and where many had their own education disrupted by the civil war.

In this building, teachers seemed grateful for the guidance.

Amos Jumanine has taught for seven years, but says he was a late bloomer.

AMOS JUMANINE, Teacher: I was 17 years when I started ABCs.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You went to kindergarten learning your ABCs when you were 17?

AMOS JUMANINE: Yeah, 17.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He is hopeful the new partnership will be good for the students. But he is adamant on one thing that needs to change: Teachers need to be paid more money, especially now that they’re required to work longer hours.

AMOS JUMANINE: I cannot afford to buy food for myself.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Financially, it’s very difficult?

AMOS JUMANINE: Yes, financially.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Very difficult.

AMOS JUMANINE: Very difficult.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Teachers in Liberia earn about $100 a month, and many say they take second jobs just to make ends meet. That contributes to one of the biggest problems in Liberian schools: chronic teacher absenteeism.

Not only are teachers routinely absent. Many really never existed, just their names on paychecks issued by the schools.

JOSH NATHAN: The president herself has acknowledged that this is a system that is really a mess.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Josh Nathan says the Bridge schools use software in the teachers’ tablets to track their daily attendance.

JOSH NATHAN: We think this is incredibly important to creating accountability and being able to watch every single day, where are our teachers, are they where they need to be?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For their part, the teachers union is strongly opposed to the partnership program. It points out that these new schools have smaller class size, around 45 to 55 pupils, and receive about $10 to $15 more per student than regular public schools.

Union leaders say their teachers could get even better outcomes than Bridge if they were given that extra money and smaller classes.

If you had the right conditions and a better salary, a lot of the problem would be solved?

MARY MULBAH, Teachers Union: Yes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And when you argued this, what were you told?

MARY MULBAH: The ministry, they’re not even listening to the teachers.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Mary Mulbah blames corruption at the ministry for hiring the ghost teachers and alleges the ministry is using its purges to target union activists.

Immanuel Morris, who was in a government program to train and hire new teachers, says his name was deleted.

Are you a ghost?

IMMANUEL MORRIS, Union Activist: I’m not a ghost, and I can prove that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They’re calling you a ghost.

IMMANUEL MORRIS: That is what I’m saying.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And you’re not a ghost?

IMMANUEL MORRIS: I’m not a ghost.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Union leaders also question whether such programs could be scaled up to serve the 2,750 elementary schools across the country. Minister Werner knows there are risks, but says the government has a moral obligation to take drastic measures.

GEORGE WERNER: It’s not a panacea. And it may just not work. But we should not just fold our arms and do nothing.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Sixty-one-year-old Marie Jaynes couldn’t agree more. She herself had to drop out of school in fourth grade. She now sells water at the side of the road to support her three grandchildren, their parents killed in the civil war.

Jaynes says the new school will give her grandchildren a better life than she has had.

MARIE JAYNES, Grandparent: What hope for them is to go far in school, for them to know the importance of school.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They are the first of three generations in her family that might enjoy the privileges of at least a primary school education.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Kendaja, Liberia.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A version of this story aired on the PBS program “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.”

Fred’s reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/liberia-private-management-public-schools-draws-scrutiny/feed/08:53Founded by freed American slaves, Liberia has a past marred in recent years by civil war and Ebola. The country’s public education system is ineffective, and in an effort to rebuild it, the government has reached across the Atlantic for assistance -- hiring a U.S.-based for-profit company whose model is “school in a box.” Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the controversial plan.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: how one for-profit school model is being tested to help revitalize a school system in West Africa. Our story is in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves with a history marked by su PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/liberia-private-management-public-schools-draws-scrutiny/Tony Blair on why he’s advocating for a global policy ‘center ground’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/sEzQNYc6boA/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/tony-blair-hes-advocating-global-policy-center-ground/#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 23:35:30 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200405

JUDY WOODRUFF: This year has marked a rise in partisan political divides the world over. But former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on a mission to encourage citizens across the globe to move toward the middle.

I spoke with him earlier this evening, and began by asking about building an agenda for what he calls the center ground.

TONY BLAIR, Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom: What it means is, as you can see from here and from Europe at the moment, from Britain, there’s a huge wave of anti-establishment feeling. There’s an enormous amount of anger. And it’s collapsing governments and political movements across the world right now.

And my view is that we’re entering into a situation of enormous instability, insecurity, fragility. And because I happen to believe that the best policy solutions lie in the center ground, then I want to see, how does the center revitalize itself? How does it develop the policy agenda for the future? And how do we link up people who have the same basic ideas and attachments to the same basic values across the world?

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, are you talking about creating new political parties in the middle?

TONY BLAIR: No.

It’s really about linking up people who look at what is happening in the world, know that the world needs change, and not the status quo, don’t want the center to be a place where we’re just managing the status quo, but instead where we’re really articulating change and developing a policy agenda that’s going to allow us to address the concerns of people left behind by globalization and, you know, communities that are fragmented, and allows us also to address it in a way which provides answers, and not just anger.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, I mean, what we see in the United States is both political parties pretty fiercely jealously guard their own territory.

TONY BLAIR: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Republicans don’t want to give up any ground. The Democrats don’t want to give up any ground. Is there really room left for something in the middle?

TONY BLAIR: Well, there’s a necessity, I think, because the trouble with today’s politics — and it’s exactly the same on the other side of the Atlantic — is that people — and this is partly as a result, I think, of social media interacting with conventional media.

And people divide into groups where they talk to each other, but don’t talk across the divide. And yet most of the challenges we face in the world today are challenges that are to do with trade, with technology, with how you make sure that people are properly educated, reform your health care system.

These are challenges that we all share in common. And they require practical solutions. I mean, they may be radical, indeed, in many circumstances, should be, but they need to be practical, evidence-based, and capable of not just exploiting people’s anger or riding their anger, but saying, this is something that’s going to improve your life.

I mean, we have taken a situation in the U.K. because of concerns, for example, over immigration and other things, so Britain now is on a path out of Europe.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: I still hope we will ultimately change our mind about that.

(CROSSTALK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: You hope it will be reversed?

TONY BLAIR: I think, as people see what it really means, and when we see the alternative offer on the table, then I think people may think again.

But I can’t tell that at the moment. The likelihood at the moment is we just proceed with Brexit. This is a huge decision that we have taken that’s going to isolate us as a country at the very point in time when the world is moving closer together.

So, it’s a — this for me is a — I have always been in that center ground — in my case, on the center-left in politics. But I think, right now, there is an urgency about it.

And you look, for example, at what has just happened in Italy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: You see, in Austria, OK, people say, well, it’s great because the more moderate person won. I mean, someone with a — frankly, a virtually neo-Nazi battleground got almost 46 percent of the vote.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: So, this is serious.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But what we’re looking at in Europe is a move away from what was the traditional center of politics to the right. Why isn’t that — why isn’t the right ascendant right now, or why don’t you believe the right is ascendant?

TONY BLAIR: Well, it may be ascendant in political terms, but the question is whether they have got answers to the problems people face.

Look, if you’re living in a community that’s become fragmented and left behind, there’s not proper investment in it and so on, in the end, the answer is to make sure that we go and we help those communities, we educate the people properly, we build the necessary infrastructure of support for people.

It’s not, in the end, stopping a process of globalization that isn’t ultimately a policy of governments. It’s driven by people, by technology, by migration, by the way the world’s changed.

So, the risk we have is that we close down in the face of this. And then, of course, as all the history demonstrates, you end up becoming protectionist, isolationist. You end up with even bigger problems.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, and I want so ask you about that, because, of course, we have just elected in the United States Donald Trump, who would argue, I think, that he’s somewhere in the center. He’s not far right. He’s certainly not far left.

And I want to specifically ask you, Tony Blair, about his foreign policy moves. He had a phone call the other day with the president of Taiwan, which is raising all kinds of questions about the U.S. relationship with China. He has had phone calls with the prime minister of Pakistan, friendly phone calls.

Do you have any observations to make about his early moves and what he said about foreign policy?

TONY BLAIR: No.

(LAUGHTER)

TONY BLAIR: And, I mean, the reason for that is, I think what — in this period of time, I would virtually discount everything. Let’s wait and see what actually happens. And I…

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you have concerns, though? I mean, he talked in the campaign about whether NATO is necessary anymore.

TONY BLAIR: Well, I think it’s really important that we — that NATO’s got a vital role to play. It’s very important that we protect NATO.

But I’m one of these people that, once you have had your election and you have elected your candidate, let’s see what actually happens. There’s no point, and there’s certainly not for me as an outsider giving a running commentary on the president-elect.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, as somebody who’s been in the center, at the center of policy-making in the West, to have a president coming in who’s already stirring this kind of comment and controversy…

TONY BLAIR: Stirring is OK. It just depends what happens in the end.

I mean, look, ultimately, this will be decided by what policies are adopted by the new administration. The president-elect, I don’t — has not chosen yet his secretary of state.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: Actually, the choice on defense is…

JUDY WOODRUFF: General Mattis.

TONY BLAIR: Yes, most people would have a high regard for. So, I’m — for me, let’s wait and see what actually happens.

And, in a sense, what is more motivating to me is not a result in a particular case. It’s, what are these practical solutions that are going to allow us to develop our countries in the way that protects the basic liberal democratic values and are values that are dear to me and are the essence of the success of our countries, in my view?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tony Blair, joining us to talk about the center ground, and waiting and seeing on the president-elect, thank you very much.

JUDY WOODRUFF: This year has marked a rise in partisan political divides the world over. But former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on a mission to encourage citizens across the globe to move toward the middle.

I spoke with him earlier this evening, and began by asking about building an agenda for what he calls the center ground.

TONY BLAIR, Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom: What it means is, as you can see from here and from Europe at the moment, from Britain, there’s a huge wave of anti-establishment feeling. There’s an enormous amount of anger. And it’s collapsing governments and political movements across the world right now.

And my view is that we’re entering into a situation of enormous instability, insecurity, fragility. And because I happen to believe that the best policy solutions lie in the center ground, then I want to see, how does the center revitalize itself? How does it develop the policy agenda for the future? And how do we link up people who have the same basic ideas and attachments to the same basic values across the world?

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, are you talking about creating new political parties in the middle?

TONY BLAIR: No.

It’s really about linking up people who look at what is happening in the world, know that the world needs change, and not the status quo, don’t want the center to be a place where we’re just managing the status quo, but instead where we’re really articulating change and developing a policy agenda that’s going to allow us to address the concerns of people left behind by globalization and, you know, communities that are fragmented, and allows us also to address it in a way which provides answers, and not just anger.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, I mean, what we see in the United States is both political parties pretty fiercely jealously guard their own territory.

TONY BLAIR: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Republicans don’t want to give up any ground. The Democrats don’t want to give up any ground. Is there really room left for something in the middle?

TONY BLAIR: Well, there’s a necessity, I think, because the trouble with today’s politics — and it’s exactly the same on the other side of the Atlantic — is that people — and this is partly as a result, I think, of social media interacting with conventional media.

And people divide into groups where they talk to each other, but don’t talk across the divide. And yet most of the challenges we face in the world today are challenges that are to do with trade, with technology, with how you make sure that people are properly educated, reform your health care system.

These are challenges that we all share in common. And they require practical solutions. I mean, they may be radical, indeed, in many circumstances, should be, but they need to be practical, evidence-based, and capable of not just exploiting people’s anger or riding their anger, but saying, this is something that’s going to improve your life.

I mean, we have taken a situation in the U.K. because of concerns, for example, over immigration and other things, so Britain now is on a path out of Europe.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: I still hope we will ultimately change our mind about that.

(CROSSTALK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: You hope it will be reversed?

TONY BLAIR: I think, as people see what it really means, and when we see the alternative offer on the table, then I think people may think again.

But I can’t tell that at the moment. The likelihood at the moment is we just proceed with Brexit. This is a huge decision that we have taken that’s going to isolate us as a country at the very point in time when the world is moving closer together.

So, it’s a — this for me is a — I have always been in that center ground — in my case, on the center-left in politics. But I think, right now, there is an urgency about it.

And you look, for example, at what has just happened in Italy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: You see, in Austria, OK, people say, well, it’s great because the more moderate person won. I mean, someone with a — frankly, a virtually neo-Nazi battleground got almost 46 percent of the vote.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: So, this is serious.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But what we’re looking at in Europe is a move away from what was the traditional center of politics to the right. Why isn’t that — why isn’t the right ascendant right now, or why don’t you believe the right is ascendant?

TONY BLAIR: Well, it may be ascendant in political terms, but the question is whether they have got answers to the problems people face.

Look, if you’re living in a community that’s become fragmented and left behind, there’s not proper investment in it and so on, in the end, the answer is to make sure that we go and we help those communities, we educate the people properly, we build the necessary infrastructure of support for people.

It’s not, in the end, stopping a process of globalization that isn’t ultimately a policy of governments. It’s driven by people, by technology, by migration, by the way the world’s changed.

So, the risk we have is that we close down in the face of this. And then, of course, as all the history demonstrates, you end up becoming protectionist, isolationist. You end up with even bigger problems.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, and I want so ask you about that, because, of course, we have just elected in the United States Donald Trump, who would argue, I think, that he’s somewhere in the center. He’s not far right. He’s certainly not far left.

And I want to specifically ask you, Tony Blair, about his foreign policy moves. He had a phone call the other day with the president of Taiwan, which is raising all kinds of questions about the U.S. relationship with China. He has had phone calls with the prime minister of Pakistan, friendly phone calls.

Do you have any observations to make about his early moves and what he said about foreign policy?

TONY BLAIR: No.

(LAUGHTER)

TONY BLAIR: And, I mean, the reason for that is, I think what — in this period of time, I would virtually discount everything. Let’s wait and see what actually happens. And I…

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you have concerns, though? I mean, he talked in the campaign about whether NATO is necessary anymore.

TONY BLAIR: Well, I think it’s really important that we — that NATO’s got a vital role to play. It’s very important that we protect NATO.

But I’m one of these people that, once you have had your election and you have elected your candidate, let’s see what actually happens. There’s no point, and there’s certainly not for me as an outsider giving a running commentary on the president-elect.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, as somebody who’s been in the center, at the center of policy-making in the West, to have a president coming in who’s already stirring this kind of comment and controversy…

TONY BLAIR: Stirring is OK. It just depends what happens in the end.

I mean, look, ultimately, this will be decided by what policies are adopted by the new administration. The president-elect, I don’t — has not chosen yet his secretary of state.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TONY BLAIR: Actually, the choice on defense is…

JUDY WOODRUFF: General Mattis.

TONY BLAIR: Yes, most people would have a high regard for. So, I’m — for me, let’s wait and see what actually happens.

And, in a sense, what is more motivating to me is not a result in a particular case. It’s, what are these practical solutions that are going to allow us to develop our countries in the way that protects the basic liberal democratic values and are values that are dear to me and are the essence of the success of our countries, in my view?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tony Blair, joining us to talk about the center ground, and waiting and seeing on the president-elect, thank you very much.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/tony-blair-hes-advocating-global-policy-center-ground/feed/07:57Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, believes the populist wave coursing across the globe is dangerous -- and likely to exacerbate, rather than ease, tensions and instability. He sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss Brexit, the effect of social media on polarization, President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks and Blair's conviction that the best policies lie in the center.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: This year has marked a rise in partisan political divides the world over. But former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on a mission to encourage citizens across the globe to move toward the middle. I sp PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/tony-blair-hes-advocating-global-policy-center-ground/Egypt envisions ‘strengthening’ of U.S. relationship under Trumphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/ERmeCzcjWj8/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/egypt-envisions-strengthening-u-s-relationship-trump/#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 23:25:25 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200440

JUDY WOODRUFF: The first foreign leader to call President-elect Trump after his victory was Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The Arab world’s most populous nation has had a turbulent relationship with the Obama White House since the 2011 revolution, and the subsequent 2013 coup that first brought al-Sisi to power.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, has been in Washington meeting with Secretary of State Kerry and with key leaders on Capitol Hill, and last week with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

This morning, he sat down with our chief foreign affairs correspondent, Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: Minister Shoukry, thank you so much for having us.

President-elect Trump and your President Sisi have had some very glowing words to say about one another. Your own embassy just put out a statement that, in fact, you are looking forward to better ties with the new administration.

So, are you looking forward to turning the page on this U.S.-Egypt relationship, which has had its ups and downs over the last few years?

It is always our objective to have close ties with the United States. We’re at a transitional period of our history and we’re on a road to reform.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you expect the Trump administration to be different than the Obama administration when it comes to dealing with Egypt?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: Well, we look forward, from what we heard from President-elect Trump, a clear vision related to the conditions and the challenges in the Middle East. And there’s a great deal of parallelity in that vision related to how we can eradicate terrorism, how we can regain stability in the region.

MARGARET WARNER: So, are you expecting more cooperation on fighting terrorism or making that the priority, and less attention, for example, to the issue of human rights in Egypt?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: That’s not the issue that concerns us.

I think the issue that concerns us is certainly regaining stability, but issues of human rights are an integral part of our reform policies, of our new constitution.

MARGARET WARNER: Did either Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence, when you met with vice President-elect Pence, on their own raise the issue of human rights with you?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: On the occasion of my meeting, it was to convey a message from President Sisi. And there was a general discussion related to conditions in the region and the importance of the strategic relationship that binds the United States and Egypt.

MARGARET WARNER: But what about human rights?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: It wasn’t raised specifically.

MARGARET WARNER: It wasn’t raised specifically?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: No.

MARGARET WARNER: There is one case that is getting some attention here.

And that’s of a young woman named Aya Hijazi, who came to work with her husband in a sort of center for street kids. And then she’s been arrested and held for months and months on what everyone here says is bogus charges that they were abusing the children.

What is the status of that case?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: Well, I think it’s a very serious accusation that’s been made.

And I think anyone would be interested to get to the bottom of accusations related to minors and related to abuse. So, I would challenge the issue of bogus accusations. And I think it’s important to recognize the impartiality of the Egyptian judicial system.

MARGARET WARNER: So, let me ask you a couple of other things about human rights.

Your Parliament last week just passed another law, further restrictions on the rights or the activities of NGOs. Will President Sisi sign that?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: The elected officials decided that they had their own vision of what they considered in the best interests of the public. And this was just before I left, so I don’t have any information related to what the president’s position on it is.

MARGARET WARNER: As you know, human rights are a deep concern here in the United States in terms of what’s going on in Egypt.

And it is hard for people to understand why so many dissidents, journalists, activists, nonviolent people, NGOs, have been rounded up, are being detained, are having their rights restricted, why, for people who speak out, for people who want to demonstrate.

SAMEH SHOUKRY: My — exactly. It’s not a matter of people speaking out.

There’s nobody who’s been accused of anything related to freedom of expression or undertaking activities of civic responsibility. All those who have been subjected to a judicial inquiry and trials have been accused of criminal activity, criminal activity, whether it’s in demonstrating without necessary permits, in violent activity during demonstrations, and such issues that are penalized in the criminal code.

MARGARET WARNER: Let me turn now to Syria.

Initially — and, of course, it was a different government. The government of Egypt opposed President Bashar al-Assad. But there are signs now that, in fact, the Egyptian government is growing closer to him, more supportive. President Sisi said he thought the Assad army was perhaps best equipped to fight terrorism. You have been also voting with Russia in the Security Council on resolutions related to Syria.

If the Syrian government asked Egypt to also send forces of any kinds, and there have been rumors to this effect, would Egypt send some to help him?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: Categorically not.

Let me clarify that the president, when he made his statements, wasn’t referring to Syria in particular. He was referring to the fact that we consider that it is the national armies of the nation state which are responsible to fight terrorism. That is their primary responsibility. They have the better ability, rather than relying on any form of foreign intervention in this regard.

So, we believe that a political solution should be under way, and that which is necessarily inclusive of all political factions in Syria. So, there is no commitment towards any specific political entity in Syria. There hasn’t been any reference to the current Syrian government.

MARGARET WARNER: So, would you say your position is closer to that of the United States or — right now — or to Russia?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: We have been cooperating with both the United States and Russia, have been actively supporting a greater understanding between them because of their ability to impact the situation.

We believe that it is intolerable that the current level of violence and — that we continue after five years of a half-a-million loss of life, that we — that this situation should continue.

MARGARET WARNER: Let me end with asking you about a couple of campaign promises.

President-elect Trump said he was going to push to renegotiate this entire Iran nuclear deal. Do you think that’s a good idea?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: The issue is very important. And we must guarantee that the region remains free of nuclear weapons.

MARGARET WARNER: And so do you think the Iran nuclear deal furthers that aim?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: We believe that the deal can — has room for improvement, definitely, in terms of the time and in terms of the guarantees to prevent any proliferation of nuclear weapons.

MARGARET WARNER: And then, finally, he promised to move the U.S. Embassy — this is an old issue — from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Would that be high on your list?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: No. We have always opposed any movement in that direction as contravening international law and legitimacy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The first foreign leader to call President-elect Trump after his victory was Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The Arab world’s most populous nation has had a turbulent relationship with the Obama White House since the 2011 revolution, and the subsequent 2013 coup that first brought al-Sisi to power.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, has been in Washington meeting with Secretary of State Kerry and with key leaders on Capitol Hill, and last week with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

This morning, he sat down with our chief foreign affairs correspondent, Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: Minister Shoukry, thank you so much for having us.

President-elect Trump and your President Sisi have had some very glowing words to say about one another. Your own embassy just put out a statement that, in fact, you are looking forward to better ties with the new administration.

So, are you looking forward to turning the page on this U.S.-Egypt relationship, which has had its ups and downs over the last few years?

It is always our objective to have close ties with the United States. We’re at a transitional period of our history and we’re on a road to reform.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you expect the Trump administration to be different than the Obama administration when it comes to dealing with Egypt?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: Well, we look forward, from what we heard from President-elect Trump, a clear vision related to the conditions and the challenges in the Middle East. And there’s a great deal of parallelity in that vision related to how we can eradicate terrorism, how we can regain stability in the region.

MARGARET WARNER: So, are you expecting more cooperation on fighting terrorism or making that the priority, and less attention, for example, to the issue of human rights in Egypt?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: That’s not the issue that concerns us.

I think the issue that concerns us is certainly regaining stability, but issues of human rights are an integral part of our reform policies, of our new constitution.

MARGARET WARNER: Did either Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence, when you met with vice President-elect Pence, on their own raise the issue of human rights with you?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: On the occasion of my meeting, it was to convey a message from President Sisi. And there was a general discussion related to conditions in the region and the importance of the strategic relationship that binds the United States and Egypt.

MARGARET WARNER: But what about human rights?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: It wasn’t raised specifically.

MARGARET WARNER: It wasn’t raised specifically?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: No.

MARGARET WARNER: There is one case that is getting some attention here.

And that’s of a young woman named Aya Hijazi, who came to work with her husband in a sort of center for street kids. And then she’s been arrested and held for months and months on what everyone here says is bogus charges that they were abusing the children.

What is the status of that case?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: Well, I think it’s a very serious accusation that’s been made.

And I think anyone would be interested to get to the bottom of accusations related to minors and related to abuse. So, I would challenge the issue of bogus accusations. And I think it’s important to recognize the impartiality of the Egyptian judicial system.

MARGARET WARNER: So, let me ask you a couple of other things about human rights.

Your Parliament last week just passed another law, further restrictions on the rights or the activities of NGOs. Will President Sisi sign that?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: The elected officials decided that they had their own vision of what they considered in the best interests of the public. And this was just before I left, so I don’t have any information related to what the president’s position on it is.

MARGARET WARNER: As you know, human rights are a deep concern here in the United States in terms of what’s going on in Egypt.

And it is hard for people to understand why so many dissidents, journalists, activists, nonviolent people, NGOs, have been rounded up, are being detained, are having their rights restricted, why, for people who speak out, for people who want to demonstrate.

SAMEH SHOUKRY: My — exactly. It’s not a matter of people speaking out.

There’s nobody who’s been accused of anything related to freedom of expression or undertaking activities of civic responsibility. All those who have been subjected to a judicial inquiry and trials have been accused of criminal activity, criminal activity, whether it’s in demonstrating without necessary permits, in violent activity during demonstrations, and such issues that are penalized in the criminal code.

MARGARET WARNER: Let me turn now to Syria.

Initially — and, of course, it was a different government. The government of Egypt opposed President Bashar al-Assad. But there are signs now that, in fact, the Egyptian government is growing closer to him, more supportive. President Sisi said he thought the Assad army was perhaps best equipped to fight terrorism. You have been also voting with Russia in the Security Council on resolutions related to Syria.

If the Syrian government asked Egypt to also send forces of any kinds, and there have been rumors to this effect, would Egypt send some to help him?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: Categorically not.

Let me clarify that the president, when he made his statements, wasn’t referring to Syria in particular. He was referring to the fact that we consider that it is the national armies of the nation state which are responsible to fight terrorism. That is their primary responsibility. They have the better ability, rather than relying on any form of foreign intervention in this regard.

So, we believe that a political solution should be under way, and that which is necessarily inclusive of all political factions in Syria. So, there is no commitment towards any specific political entity in Syria. There hasn’t been any reference to the current Syrian government.

MARGARET WARNER: So, would you say your position is closer to that of the United States or — right now — or to Russia?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: We have been cooperating with both the United States and Russia, have been actively supporting a greater understanding between them because of their ability to impact the situation.

We believe that it is intolerable that the current level of violence and — that we continue after five years of a half-a-million loss of life, that we — that this situation should continue.

MARGARET WARNER: Let me end with asking you about a couple of campaign promises.

President-elect Trump said he was going to push to renegotiate this entire Iran nuclear deal. Do you think that’s a good idea?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: The issue is very important. And we must guarantee that the region remains free of nuclear weapons.

MARGARET WARNER: And so do you think the Iran nuclear deal furthers that aim?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: We believe that the deal can — has room for improvement, definitely, in terms of the time and in terms of the guarantees to prevent any proliferation of nuclear weapons.

MARGARET WARNER: And then, finally, he promised to move the U.S. Embassy — this is an old issue — from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Would that be high on your list?

SAMEH SHOUKRY: No. We have always opposed any movement in that direction as contravening international law and legitimacy.

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: Today in Santiago, Cuba, the remains of former president Fidel Castro, who died 10 days ago, were interred in what the government called a simple ceremony.

No other man in the 20th century ruled his country long as he did — 49 years, before he stepped down in 2008.
His supporters saw him as a brave champion of the people…and opponents saw a ruthless dictator.

With the help of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Nick Schifrin is in Cuba, outside the funeral, and joins us now from Santiago. Nick?

NICK SCHIFRIN, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: Alison, good evening. This is the city that birthed the hero’s myth of Castro as revolutionary, where he descended from the mountains behind me in 1959 to overthrow a corrupt, us-backed dictator. He dominated Cuba for the next half century with a combined charisma and cruelty, convincing his people he was their destined savior… repressing them with zero tolerance for dissent. But in this city you hear no loathing. Only love.

Fidel Castro’s final journey ended in the city where his revolution began. A military convoy pulled a flag-draped, cedar coffin containing his ashes through Santiago’s streets.

His successor and 85-year-old younger brother, Raul, took that box and placed it inside a boulder-like tomb. The final resting place for the man who outlasted 10 U.S. Presidents, is inscribed only with his first name…that became synonymous with his country.

Outside the cemetery, with the Cuban flag at half-staff, 56-year-old Rogelio del Toro vowed to run the 500-mile route that Castro’s remains took to get here.

ROGELIO DEL TORO: I will run this route to show the new generation the physical resilience of our commander in chief and what the Cuban people are capable of.

SCHIFRIN: Del Toro’s sense of patriotism means he glosses over the Castro’s economic policies, which prevented him from escaping poverty.

DEL TORO: He is the father of the revolution, and we will move forward with the traditions of our commander.

SCHIFRIN: That adulation was also on display last night at Revolutionary Square, for the final public farewell to the man they call their eternal commander.

Cuban President Raul Castro has promised to continue his older brother’s work. And amid the flying flags, we found no Fidel critics. No critics of the Cuban government’s persecuting its enemies or curtailing freedom of speech.

SCHIFRIN: Norah Bosque is 69-years-old and has lived in Santiago all her life.

NORAH BOSQUE: The people who don’t agree with us can say whatever they want. But for those of us who love him, he will always be our commander-in-chief.

SCHIFRIN: Even the government’s opponents admit these sentiments are genuine. Daniela Morales is 16.

DANIELLA MORALES: He will always be our commander even if he’s not here physically. We owe him our freedom and independence.

SCHIFRIN: For her, freedom and independence means the state’s safety nets: free education from pre-K through university, and free health care. She wants to be an actress.

MORALES: Our government, our state guarantees everything we need. I think our salary is enough to have a stable and comfortable life. I want everything to stay the way it is.
SCHIFRIN: But the fact is, during the last decade everything in Cuba has not stayed the way it was. 32-year-old Angel Garcia is one of a half million Cubans who’s been allowed to enter the private sector. His old government job only paid 10 dollars a week. He quit and now works at this high-end salon, where a single haircut costs about that much.

ANGEL PEREZ, HAIR STYLIST: We prefer to work in the private sector now, because we make much more money than in any government job.

SCHIFRIN: He’s eager for more opportunity. And he thinks the country can provide that without challenging the revolution’s core principles.
PEREZ: We have education, we have free health care. Our problems are small. That allows us to move forward and put our energy toward finding the right changes.
SCHIFRIN: Going forward, Cuba’s leaders will have to figure out a way to maintain the socialist safety net and, at the same time, ease economic frustration. It’s not clear if that’s possible, but Alison, what that likely means is that Cuba will evolve—but very, very slowly, and while it maintains the repression that is one of Fidel’s main legacies.

STEWART: Nick, one of president Obama’s legacies has been normalizing relations. What are Cubans saying about that trend continuing under president-elect Trump?

SCHIFRIN: President-Elect Trump could reverse President Obama’s executive actions that increased travel and business opportunities. That’s what Trump seemed to threaten in a recent Tweet, vowing to quote terminate the agreements unless Cuba made a better deal for the Cuban people. Raul Castro has been allowing slow, modest openings here, including those private sector jobs. And most analysts here and in the U.S. warn that halting the normalization could lead to more crackdowns, and fewer openings.
STEWART: Nick Schifrin reporting from Santiago, Cuba. Thank you.

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: Today in Santiago, Cuba, the remains of former president Fidel Castro, who died 10 days ago, were interred in what the government called a simple ceremony.

No other man in the 20th century ruled his country long as he did — 49 years, before he stepped down in 2008.
His supporters saw him as a brave champion of the people…and opponents saw a ruthless dictator.

With the help of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Nick Schifrin is in Cuba, outside the funeral, and joins us now from Santiago. Nick?

NICK SCHIFRIN, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: Alison, good evening. This is the city that birthed the hero’s myth of Castro as revolutionary, where he descended from the mountains behind me in 1959 to overthrow a corrupt, us-backed dictator. He dominated Cuba for the next half century with a combined charisma and cruelty, convincing his people he was their destined savior… repressing them with zero tolerance for dissent. But in this city you hear no loathing. Only love.

Fidel Castro’s final journey ended in the city where his revolution began. A military convoy pulled a flag-draped, cedar coffin containing his ashes through Santiago’s streets.

His successor and 85-year-old younger brother, Raul, took that box and placed it inside a boulder-like tomb. The final resting place for the man who outlasted 10 U.S. Presidents, is inscribed only with his first name…that became synonymous with his country.

Outside the cemetery, with the Cuban flag at half-staff, 56-year-old Rogelio del Toro vowed to run the 500-mile route that Castro’s remains took to get here.

ROGELIO DEL TORO: I will run this route to show the new generation the physical resilience of our commander in chief and what the Cuban people are capable of.

SCHIFRIN: Del Toro’s sense of patriotism means he glosses over the Castro’s economic policies, which prevented him from escaping poverty.

DEL TORO: He is the father of the revolution, and we will move forward with the traditions of our commander.

SCHIFRIN: That adulation was also on display last night at Revolutionary Square, for the final public farewell to the man they call their eternal commander.

Cuban President Raul Castro has promised to continue his older brother’s work. And amid the flying flags, we found no Fidel critics. No critics of the Cuban government’s persecuting its enemies or curtailing freedom of speech.

SCHIFRIN: Norah Bosque is 69-years-old and has lived in Santiago all her life.

NORAH BOSQUE: The people who don’t agree with us can say whatever they want. But for those of us who love him, he will always be our commander-in-chief.

SCHIFRIN: Even the government’s opponents admit these sentiments are genuine. Daniela Morales is 16.

DANIELLA MORALES: He will always be our commander even if he’s not here physically. We owe him our freedom and independence.

SCHIFRIN: For her, freedom and independence means the state’s safety nets: free education from pre-K through university, and free health care. She wants to be an actress.

MORALES: Our government, our state guarantees everything we need. I think our salary is enough to have a stable and comfortable life. I want everything to stay the way it is.
SCHIFRIN: But the fact is, during the last decade everything in Cuba has not stayed the way it was. 32-year-old Angel Garcia is one of a half million Cubans who’s been allowed to enter the private sector. His old government job only paid 10 dollars a week. He quit and now works at this high-end salon, where a single haircut costs about that much.

ANGEL PEREZ, HAIR STYLIST: We prefer to work in the private sector now, because we make much more money than in any government job.

SCHIFRIN: He’s eager for more opportunity. And he thinks the country can provide that without challenging the revolution’s core principles.
PEREZ: We have education, we have free health care. Our problems are small. That allows us to move forward and put our energy toward finding the right changes.
SCHIFRIN: Going forward, Cuba’s leaders will have to figure out a way to maintain the socialist safety net and, at the same time, ease economic frustration. It’s not clear if that’s possible, but Alison, what that likely means is that Cuba will evolve—but very, very slowly, and while it maintains the repression that is one of Fidel’s main legacies.

STEWART: Nick, one of president Obama’s legacies has been normalizing relations. What are Cubans saying about that trend continuing under president-elect Trump?

SCHIFRIN: President-Elect Trump could reverse President Obama’s executive actions that increased travel and business opportunities. That’s what Trump seemed to threaten in a recent Tweet, vowing to quote terminate the agreements unless Cuba made a better deal for the Cuban people. Raul Castro has been allowing slow, modest openings here, including those private sector jobs. And most analysts here and in the U.S. warn that halting the normalization could lead to more crackdowns, and fewer openings.
STEWART: Nick Schifrin reporting from Santiago, Cuba. Thank you.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fidel-castro-interred-cuban-ceremony/feed/05:02Fidel Castro was laid to rest on Sunday during a private ceremony that capped nine days of mourning in Cuba. Castro ruled the island nation for 49 years before he stepped down in 2008. His remains were carried in a military procession to a cemetery in the city of Santiago. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Nick Schifrin joins Alison Stewart from Cuba.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio Read the full transcript below. ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: Today in Santiago, Cuba, the remains of former president Fidel Castro, who died 10 days ago, were interred in what the government called a simple cere PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fidel-castro-interred-cuban-ceremony/Rwanda was first to prosecute mass rape as war crimehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/lwDEb4WmutU/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rwanda-first-prosecute-mass-rape-war-crime/#respondSun, 04 Dec 2016 19:30:28 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200313

IVETTE FELICIANO: In the spring and summer of 1994, an ethnic cleansing campaign in Rwanda left 800-thousand people dead, even while United Nations peacekeepers were on the ground and the rest of the world did virtually nothing to stop it.

Toward the end of a civil war, Rwanda’s government, then run by its ethnic majority, the Hutus, systematically murdered 70 percent of the country’s ethnic minority, the Tutsis.

As the toll of the carnage became clear, human rights groups successfully pressured the United Nations to convene the first ever international tribunal for genocide in history.

Between 1998 and 2012, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted 62 individuals for the genocide and other serious war crimes.

Part of the story rarely told involves the brutal mass rapes of an estimated 250-thousand women, men and children during the genocide and the world’s first prosecution of rape as a war crime.

A new documentary — “The Uncondemned” — sheds light on this atrocity and the struggle to bring justice for the rape survivors…

Journalist Michele Mitchell directed “The Uncondemned”….which refers to the perpetrators of mass rape not held accountable until the landmark prosecution. The film revisits the events and the case that would change international law.

FELICIANO: Why is this an important story to tell today in 2016?

MITCHELL: Rape has been a crime of war since 1919. But it took almost 80 years for rape to be prosecuted for the first time. And the reasons why they finally prosecuted continue on to this day. And those include it happens in every conflict around the world, with all religions, and it’s almost never taken as seriously as other crimes of war. It’s a vital story now because as we are sitting here and talking, we know that it’s going on in Syria, in Iraq, by ISIS. We know that Boko Haram is doing it. South Sudan, I could name any number of places where this is happening as we’re having this conversation.

FELICIANO: Are there complexities about sexual violence in times of war that you think are often misunderstood?

MITCHELL: One thing that I have consistently heard over the last three years as we were making this film is that, ‘oh, well, rape is just something that happens in war; it’s always happened. The act of sexual violence will rip apart a family and a community, and by virtue of that, a society, for several generations. And it’s not just the shame that happens. A lot of times you are physically incapacitated after that incredibly violent act.

FELICIANO: “The Uncondemned” focuses on the case brought against a mayor, Jean-Paul Akayesu, who was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for ordering mass murders and rapes that occurred in his township, Taba.

Mitchell interviewed rape survivors as well as the prosecutors and aid workers who took up their cause.

BINAIFER NOWROJEE: They would say, ‘we begged to be killed after the rapes,’ you know, ‘please kill us.’ a lot of the Hutu militias would say, ‘no, we are going to leave you alive so that you will die of sadness,’ and that’s with these women said: ‘we are dying of sadness.’

FELICIANO: An American-led legal team convinced a panel of U.N. judges that Akayesu had used mass rape as a form of torture.

Pierre Prosper, then a Los Angeles assistant district attorney, was one of the prosecutors.

FELICIANO: Can you talk about that moment when you realized that prosecuting rape was essential to Akayesu’s case?

PROSPER: It really became critical for us in the Akayesu case when one witness told us about an event where women were being taken back to the back of the city hall, and systemically distributed and violated, and that Akayesu was there. It became clear to us that this was really part of the scheme, part of the genocide, part of the torture, part of the destruction of the fabric of the society. So it was a designed plan to diminish a population.

FELICIANO: With no legal precedents, the under-resourced and underfunded legal team had the difficult job of making the case that mass rapes are just as detrimental as murders during genocide.

Once the trial began in 1997, there were high expectations…

PROSPER: We had the pressure coming out of the west, whether it be New York, the United Nations, or western governments looking at us and saying are you going to win? Because they needed us to win in order to send a message to the international community that there will be accountability for genocide.

FELICIANO: As the film recounts, Prosper and the legal team convinced three Rwandan survivors to step forward and testify against Akayesu in court, sharing that many women in their town were forced to endure multiple acts of sexual violence commissioned by him.

Victoire Mukambanda was one of them.

VICTOIRE MUKAMBANDA: I wanted to tell the story of what Akayesu did so that his crimes would become notorious in the eyes of the entire world.

PROSPER: I remember putting witnesses on the stand, and you leave at the end of the day just emotionally drained, and you say to yourself I have just now heard the worst that I’ve ever heard in my life. The next day, the next witness comes on, and they you say no, no, today is the worst, and it was like that throughout the entire process.

FELICIANO: How did Akayesu’s conviction and the concept of rape as a war crime, how did it change the game?

MITCHELL: It did a couple of very important things. It set the precedent. The whole reason why we can prosecute rape as a crime against humanity, crime of war and a crime of genocide is because of the Akayesu verdict. And the other thing it did, which was really interesting, is that it took gender out of it. And that’s incredibly important, because men are raped in conflict as well.

After a 20 month trial in Arusha, Tanzania, the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal sentenced Akayesu to life in prison. In the years after his precedent-setting case, international tribunals showed greater resolve in recognizing wartime rapes, such as in the tribunals that held Serbs accountable for their treatment of Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia. More recently, crimes of mass rape were prosecuted by tribunals following atrocities in Sierra Leone and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But prosper believes even today, the global community could be more responsive in conflicts like South Sudan.

PROSPER: I think we’ve lost a bit of our footing, and I actually think that what happened is once the permanent international criminal court was created, people looked at that as, ‘oh, we’ve arrived.’ and the politicians around the world said, ‘we’ve done our job, there’s this court, we need now focus on these issues.’ It creates this gap, a gap of inaction. So i think the international community needs to wake up, governments need to wake up, and realize that their responsibility continues.

FELICIANO: A responsibility that international reporting keeps in the spotlight.

MITCHELL: Because the men and women of the press corps who covered what happened in Bosnia and also Rwanda and covered the sexual violence and wrote about it and put it on television and kept it in the public eye, that created interest on the part of the public, who then wrote letters to the tribunals saying, ‘we want you to prosecute this. We’re going to be watching.’ It goes all the way around to the fact that the public got involved and demanded that their leaders take this seriously, do something. So if it worked then, it can work now.

Editor’s Note: The transcript on this page has been updated to accurately reflect the story that was broadcast on Dec. 4.

IVETTE FELICIANO: In the spring and summer of 1994, an ethnic cleansing campaign in Rwanda left 800-thousand people dead, even while United Nations peacekeepers were on the ground and the rest of the world did virtually nothing to stop it.

Toward the end of a civil war, Rwanda’s government, then run by its ethnic majority, the Hutus, systematically murdered 70 percent of the country’s ethnic minority, the Tutsis.

As the toll of the carnage became clear, human rights groups successfully pressured the United Nations to convene the first ever international tribunal for genocide in history.

Between 1998 and 2012, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted 62 individuals for the genocide and other serious war crimes.

Part of the story rarely told involves the brutal mass rapes of an estimated 250-thousand women, men and children during the genocide and the world’s first prosecution of rape as a war crime.

A new documentary — “The Uncondemned” — sheds light on this atrocity and the struggle to bring justice for the rape survivors…

Journalist Michele Mitchell directed “The Uncondemned”….which refers to the perpetrators of mass rape not held accountable until the landmark prosecution. The film revisits the events and the case that would change international law.

FELICIANO: Why is this an important story to tell today in 2016?

MITCHELL: Rape has been a crime of war since 1919. But it took almost 80 years for rape to be prosecuted for the first time. And the reasons why they finally prosecuted continue on to this day. And those include it happens in every conflict around the world, with all religions, and it’s almost never taken as seriously as other crimes of war. It’s a vital story now because as we are sitting here and talking, we know that it’s going on in Syria, in Iraq, by ISIS. We know that Boko Haram is doing it. South Sudan, I could name any number of places where this is happening as we’re having this conversation.

FELICIANO: Are there complexities about sexual violence in times of war that you think are often misunderstood?

MITCHELL: One thing that I have consistently heard over the last three years as we were making this film is that, ‘oh, well, rape is just something that happens in war; it’s always happened. The act of sexual violence will rip apart a family and a community, and by virtue of that, a society, for several generations. And it’s not just the shame that happens. A lot of times you are physically incapacitated after that incredibly violent act.

FELICIANO: “The Uncondemned” focuses on the case brought against a mayor, Jean-Paul Akayesu, who was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for ordering mass murders and rapes that occurred in his township, Taba.

Mitchell interviewed rape survivors as well as the prosecutors and aid workers who took up their cause.

BINAIFER NOWROJEE: They would say, ‘we begged to be killed after the rapes,’ you know, ‘please kill us.’ a lot of the Hutu militias would say, ‘no, we are going to leave you alive so that you will die of sadness,’ and that’s with these women said: ‘we are dying of sadness.’

FELICIANO: An American-led legal team convinced a panel of U.N. judges that Akayesu had used mass rape as a form of torture.

Pierre Prosper, then a Los Angeles assistant district attorney, was one of the prosecutors.

FELICIANO: Can you talk about that moment when you realized that prosecuting rape was essential to Akayesu’s case?

PROSPER: It really became critical for us in the Akayesu case when one witness told us about an event where women were being taken back to the back of the city hall, and systemically distributed and violated, and that Akayesu was there. It became clear to us that this was really part of the scheme, part of the genocide, part of the torture, part of the destruction of the fabric of the society. So it was a designed plan to diminish a population.

FELICIANO: With no legal precedents, the under-resourced and underfunded legal team had the difficult job of making the case that mass rapes are just as detrimental as murders during genocide.

Once the trial began in 1997, there were high expectations…

PROSPER: We had the pressure coming out of the west, whether it be New York, the United Nations, or western governments looking at us and saying are you going to win? Because they needed us to win in order to send a message to the international community that there will be accountability for genocide.

FELICIANO: As the film recounts, Prosper and the legal team convinced three Rwandan survivors to step forward and testify against Akayesu in court, sharing that many women in their town were forced to endure multiple acts of sexual violence commissioned by him.

Victoire Mukambanda was one of them.

VICTOIRE MUKAMBANDA: I wanted to tell the story of what Akayesu did so that his crimes would become notorious in the eyes of the entire world.

PROSPER: I remember putting witnesses on the stand, and you leave at the end of the day just emotionally drained, and you say to yourself I have just now heard the worst that I’ve ever heard in my life. The next day, the next witness comes on, and they you say no, no, today is the worst, and it was like that throughout the entire process.

FELICIANO: How did Akayesu’s conviction and the concept of rape as a war crime, how did it change the game?

MITCHELL: It did a couple of very important things. It set the precedent. The whole reason why we can prosecute rape as a crime against humanity, crime of war and a crime of genocide is because of the Akayesu verdict. And the other thing it did, which was really interesting, is that it took gender out of it. And that’s incredibly important, because men are raped in conflict as well.

After a 20 month trial in Arusha, Tanzania, the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal sentenced Akayesu to life in prison. In the years after his precedent-setting case, international tribunals showed greater resolve in recognizing wartime rapes, such as in the tribunals that held Serbs accountable for their treatment of Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia. More recently, crimes of mass rape were prosecuted by tribunals following atrocities in Sierra Leone and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But prosper believes even today, the global community could be more responsive in conflicts like South Sudan.

PROSPER: I think we’ve lost a bit of our footing, and I actually think that what happened is once the permanent international criminal court was created, people looked at that as, ‘oh, we’ve arrived.’ and the politicians around the world said, ‘we’ve done our job, there’s this court, we need now focus on these issues.’ It creates this gap, a gap of inaction. So i think the international community needs to wake up, governments need to wake up, and realize that their responsibility continues.

FELICIANO: A responsibility that international reporting keeps in the spotlight.

MITCHELL: Because the men and women of the press corps who covered what happened in Bosnia and also Rwanda and covered the sexual violence and wrote about it and put it on television and kept it in the public eye, that created interest on the part of the public, who then wrote letters to the tribunals saying, ‘we want you to prosecute this. We’re going to be watching.’ It goes all the way around to the fact that the public got involved and demanded that their leaders take this seriously, do something. So if it worked then, it can work now.

Editor’s Note: The transcript on this page has been updated to accurately reflect the story that was broadcast on Dec. 4.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rwanda-first-prosecute-mass-rape-war-crime/feed/08:02A new documentary takes an in-depth look at the difficulties of prosecuting mass rape in international courts. “The Uncondemned,” in theaters this month, reviews the landmark case in Rwanda that changed how mass rape could be prosecuted as an act of genocide. NewsHour Weekend’s Ivette Feliciano spoke with filmmaker Michele Mitchell and has more on the case.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio By: Ivette Feliciano and Zachary Green IVETTE FELICIANO: In the spring and summer of 1994, an ethnic cleansing campaign in Rwanda left 800-thousand people dead, even while United Nations peacekeepers were on the ground a PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rwanda-first-prosecute-mass-rape-war-crime/Populist politics play out in Austria’s presidential electionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/Etl50B9iAuY/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/populist-politics-play-austrias-presidential-election/#respondSun, 04 Dec 2016 00:21:06 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200273

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: In Europe, anti- establishment, populist political parties are on the rise not only in Italy, as we discussed earlier in the broadcast, but also in France, England, Germany and Austria.

Austrians vote in their presidential election tomorrow, which is a do-over of the election held in May that was nullified over voting irregularities. The left-leaning independent candidate, Alexander Van der Bellen, is running against Norbert Hofer of the right wing Freedom Party, who opposes benefits for migrants and is critical of the European Union.

Francois Murphy is the bureau chief for “Reuters” in Vienna, and he joins me now to discuss this election.

Francois, in every article about the Austrian election, you also read a sentence about Brexit, the U.K. exit from Europe, and about the election of the Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Is there a sense that Austria will follow in this line of rejecting establishment parties and people and go anti-establishment?

FRANCOIS MURPHY, REUTERS: Well, you could also argue that it’s actually Britain and America that were following Austria since, as you mentioned, this is a re-run of an election that was first held in May. And in May, the far-right candidate Norbert Hofer came very, very close to winning.

So, in a way, it’s very hard to say which way this wave is headed in.

ALISON STEWART: Where are the lines divided in the country? Who’s voting for whom?

FRANCOIS MURPHY: There is actually a very similar picture to what we have since seen in Britain and in the United States. Data from the original rerun in May shows that you had blue-collar workers largely voting for Norbert Hofer, the far-right candidate, was the highly educated, for example, were largely backing Alexander Van der Bellen, the former leader of the Green Party.

ALISON STEWART: Francois, is there anti-E.U. sentiment involved in the Austrian election?

FRANCOIS MURPHY: I’m not sure it’s fair to say that this is driven by anti-E.U. sentiment. In fact, the far-right candidate, Norbert Hofer, said Austria could hold their own vote on leaving the European Union within a year and that hasn’t gone down too well in Austria, where most people, according to opinion polls, feel that the country should stay within the E.U.

STEWART: If Norbert Hofer should win, what could he do? What changes could he make?

FRANCOIS MURPHY: So, in Austria, the president traditionally plays a largely ceremonial role. The pretty powers, however, are quite broadly defined, and it’s possible to interpret those in a larger way.

And that’s what Norbert Hofer has said he intends to do. He has said that he would dismiss a government that behaved in a certain way. He’s given a couple of examples, at least. One is if the government were to raise taxes. Another is if a government allowed another influx of migrants like the one we saw here just over a year ago where, at the time, there were no I.D. checks for example of people coming through and he says that if something like that were to happen again, he would dismiss the government.

ALISON STEWART: Francois Murphy of “Reuters” — thanks for joining us from Vienna.

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: In Europe, anti- establishment, populist political parties are on the rise not only in Italy, as we discussed earlier in the broadcast, but also in France, England, Germany and Austria.

Austrians vote in their presidential election tomorrow, which is a do-over of the election held in May that was nullified over voting irregularities. The left-leaning independent candidate, Alexander Van der Bellen, is running against Norbert Hofer of the right wing Freedom Party, who opposes benefits for migrants and is critical of the European Union.

Francois Murphy is the bureau chief for “Reuters” in Vienna, and he joins me now to discuss this election.

Francois, in every article about the Austrian election, you also read a sentence about Brexit, the U.K. exit from Europe, and about the election of the Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Is there a sense that Austria will follow in this line of rejecting establishment parties and people and go anti-establishment?

FRANCOIS MURPHY, REUTERS: Well, you could also argue that it’s actually Britain and America that were following Austria since, as you mentioned, this is a re-run of an election that was first held in May. And in May, the far-right candidate Norbert Hofer came very, very close to winning.

So, in a way, it’s very hard to say which way this wave is headed in.

ALISON STEWART: Where are the lines divided in the country? Who’s voting for whom?

FRANCOIS MURPHY: There is actually a very similar picture to what we have since seen in Britain and in the United States. Data from the original rerun in May shows that you had blue-collar workers largely voting for Norbert Hofer, the far-right candidate, was the highly educated, for example, were largely backing Alexander Van der Bellen, the former leader of the Green Party.

ALISON STEWART: Francois, is there anti-E.U. sentiment involved in the Austrian election?

FRANCOIS MURPHY: I’m not sure it’s fair to say that this is driven by anti-E.U. sentiment. In fact, the far-right candidate, Norbert Hofer, said Austria could hold their own vote on leaving the European Union within a year and that hasn’t gone down too well in Austria, where most people, according to opinion polls, feel that the country should stay within the E.U.

STEWART: If Norbert Hofer should win, what could he do? What changes could he make?

FRANCOIS MURPHY: So, in Austria, the president traditionally plays a largely ceremonial role. The pretty powers, however, are quite broadly defined, and it’s possible to interpret those in a larger way.

And that’s what Norbert Hofer has said he intends to do. He has said that he would dismiss a government that behaved in a certain way. He’s given a couple of examples, at least. One is if the government were to raise taxes. Another is if a government allowed another influx of migrants like the one we saw here just over a year ago where, at the time, there were no I.D. checks for example of people coming through and he says that if something like that were to happen again, he would dismiss the government.

ALISON STEWART: Francois Murphy of “Reuters” — thanks for joining us from Vienna.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/populist-politics-play-austrias-presidential-election/feed/03:03 In Europe, anti-establishment, populist political parties are on the rise, a development playing out as Austrians prepare to select their next president on Sunday. The race pits the left-leaning independent candidate Alexander Van Der Bellen against Norbert Hofer, the leader of the right-wing Freedom Party. Francois Murphy, bureau chief for Reuters in Vienna, joins Alison Stewart to discuss.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: In Europe, anti- establishment, populist political parties are on the rise not only in Italy, as we discussed earlier in the broadcast, but also in France, England, Germany an PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/populist-politics-play-austrias-presidential-election/Italian vote could amend post-war constitutionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/N2aghghpTxM/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/italian-vote-amend-post-war-constitution/#respondSun, 04 Dec 2016 00:16:52 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200270

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: Italians vote tomorrow in a referendum to change their post- World War II constitution in the hopes of alleviating the gridlock that plagues the country’s central government. Italy’s prime minister for most of the past three years, Matteo Renzi, says he’ll resign if the referendum fails.

“NewsHour Weekend” special correspondent Christopher Livesay joins me from Rome to discuss the referendum and its potential impact on the European Union.

Christopher, what are the driving forces behind “yes” on the referendum, let’s change the way the government works? And what’s the driving forces behind “no,” let’s not do that?

CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY, NEWSHOUR WEEKEND SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so, the idea behind voting yes is quite simple. It’s to change the constitution, to ultimately streamline the political system here. Italy is notoriously difficult to govern. It’s had 63 governments in the last 70 years.

One of the main reasons for that is, if you want to pass a law, it tends to get stuck between both a senate and a house. And the idea would be to shrink the senate so you make the house a little more powerful, and you can get a law through that way and generate more stability in the Italian government. And with more governmental stability, the idea is you would have more economic stability as well.

The people voting “no” on this are upset with the powers this would give to the prime minister. The constitution in Italy, as you mentioned, came after World War II. You have to think about who was in charge in Italy during World War II and before World War II. That was none other than the dictator Benito Mussolini.

So, the constitution was written in a way to keep the prime minister from becoming too powerful, but in the process, it’s generated a lot of gridlock. There’s still a large portion of the Italian electorate that’s still undecided. It’s about 30 percent of Italians still don’t know two which way they’re going to vote on this thing.

ALISON STEWART: One of the things that’s interesting about this election is the domino effect it could have, if Renzi does, indeed, resign, and then it opens it up for others to take place, take his place. Obviously, the Five Star Movement is the one we’re hearing a lot about.

Tell us a little bit about the Five Star Movement, who supports it, and who its leader is.

CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY: It’s a catch-all party. They tend to oppose anything that the government proposes, but one thing that we can say about them is that they’re populist, they’re anti-establishment, and they’re anti-euro.

The leader of this party is a charismatic stand-up comic by the name of Beppe Grillo. He is sort of gleefully vulgar and has a way of just connecting with people, unlike any other politician on the scene right now. That might ring a bell with viewers in the United States.

Beppe Grillo has proposed giving Italians a referendum on their membership to the euro zone, and that could send some serious economic shockwaves all across the common currency area.

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: Italians vote tomorrow in a referendum to change their post- World War II constitution in the hopes of alleviating the gridlock that plagues the country’s central government. Italy’s prime minister for most of the past three years, Matteo Renzi, says he’ll resign if the referendum fails.

“NewsHour Weekend” special correspondent Christopher Livesay joins me from Rome to discuss the referendum and its potential impact on the European Union.

Christopher, what are the driving forces behind “yes” on the referendum, let’s change the way the government works? And what’s the driving forces behind “no,” let’s not do that?

CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY, NEWSHOUR WEEKEND SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so, the idea behind voting yes is quite simple. It’s to change the constitution, to ultimately streamline the political system here. Italy is notoriously difficult to govern. It’s had 63 governments in the last 70 years.

One of the main reasons for that is, if you want to pass a law, it tends to get stuck between both a senate and a house. And the idea would be to shrink the senate so you make the house a little more powerful, and you can get a law through that way and generate more stability in the Italian government. And with more governmental stability, the idea is you would have more economic stability as well.

The people voting “no” on this are upset with the powers this would give to the prime minister. The constitution in Italy, as you mentioned, came after World War II. You have to think about who was in charge in Italy during World War II and before World War II. That was none other than the dictator Benito Mussolini.

So, the constitution was written in a way to keep the prime minister from becoming too powerful, but in the process, it’s generated a lot of gridlock. There’s still a large portion of the Italian electorate that’s still undecided. It’s about 30 percent of Italians still don’t know two which way they’re going to vote on this thing.

ALISON STEWART: One of the things that’s interesting about this election is the domino effect it could have, if Renzi does, indeed, resign, and then it opens it up for others to take place, take his place. Obviously, the Five Star Movement is the one we’re hearing a lot about.

Tell us a little bit about the Five Star Movement, who supports it, and who its leader is.

CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY: It’s a catch-all party. They tend to oppose anything that the government proposes, but one thing that we can say about them is that they’re populist, they’re anti-establishment, and they’re anti-euro.

The leader of this party is a charismatic stand-up comic by the name of Beppe Grillo. He is sort of gleefully vulgar and has a way of just connecting with people, unlike any other politician on the scene right now. That might ring a bell with viewers in the United States.

Beppe Grillo has proposed giving Italians a referendum on their membership to the euro zone, and that could send some serious economic shockwaves all across the common currency area.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/italian-vote-amend-post-war-constitution/feed/02:56Italians on Sunday will vote on a referendum to amend their post-World War II constitution, a move aimed at alleviating years of gridlock in the country’s central government by strengthening the office of the prime minister. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Christopher Livesay joins Alison Stewart from Rome to discuss the referendum and its potential impact on the the European Union.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: Italians vote tomorrow in a referendum to change their post- World War II constitution in the hopes of alleviating the gridlock that plagues the country&#8217;s central gover PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/italian-vote-amend-post-war-constitution/Embargo remains for some Cuba sectors, as trade grows slowlyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/7TeaAmhUQ6g/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/embargo-cuba-trade-slowly/#respondSat, 03 Dec 2016 19:42:40 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200257

AMY GUTTMAN: Visitors to Cuba may find the lack of modernization part of the country’s charm, but if Cuban farmers and American investors get their way, oxen that still till these fields may finally be replaced.

Cuban-American entrepreneur Saul Berenthal owns Cleber, an Alabama-based tractor manufacturing business. He’s among the first to obtain a U.S. license to export agricultural machines, like the ones seen here, to Cuba.

SAUL BERENTHAL: This is an opportunity for us to go back and see, in my mind, how do we help the two communities together? Because I believe, through commerce, through business, and not politics, is the best way of bringing the peoples together.

AMY GUTTMAN: Berenthal also believes better machines will help Cubans decrease their dependence on imports, which account for 80 percent of the island’s food supply.

SAUL BERENTHAL: What we chose was a tractor that was designed in the late 1940s for the U.S. family farm. Very much like what you see here and very much like what you see throughout the whole country.

AMY GUTTMAN: Cuba has yet to approve the sale of Berenthal’s tractors. When it does, he plans to ship them assembled, but one day he hopes to set up a factory here so Cubans can build them. Berenthal was born and raised in Havana, the son of European immigrants who fled the Holocaust. His parents were successful merchants who imported American products until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 when they left Havana for Miami.

SAUL BERENTHAL: The socialist economic model is to keep the land in the hands of the people who work the land, and therefore every Cuban that is willing to, is given X amount of land, for them to cultivate and they get the government to buy their crop, and what we’re doing is trying to bring some technology that will allow them to be more productive with what they do.

AMY GUTTMAN: The Cuban Government buys a portion of what farmers produce to stock bodegas where Cubans use ration cards to buy food. Farmers can sell the rest at produce stands for cash.

Agriculture is one of the biggest sectors targeted for stronger trade with the U.S. Since a sanctions reform act in 2000, thirteen states led by Virginia, Alabama, and Louisiana have exported to Cuba limited amounts of products like soybeans, apples, and poultry. Those shipments topped $150 million in the first nine months of this year.

At the same time, the U.S. allowed Cuban imports of coffee for the first time and a greater range of textiles. But Cuba’s largest exports to other countries like rum, tobacco, exotic fruit, and honey have yet to make it to the U.S. market due to the continuing embargo.

ISIS SALCINES: I need tools, I need implements, I need infrastructure for support.

AMY GUTTMAN: Is the trade embargo the obstacle here to developing that land?

ISIS SALCINES: when you have 300 hectares, and you have a pair of oxen. We need tractors.

AMY GUTTMAN: American trade delegations regularly visit the farm, which raises cows and grows lettuce, sugarcane, and Moringa trees, whose leaves are packed with protein, calcium, and other nutrients.

ISIS SALCINES: You can eat the leaves, the flower, everything. Has more calcium than milk, more protein than meat.

AMY GUTTMAN: Without modern tools, the farm uses arduous techniques. For example, it doesn’t have PH meters to test whether the soil is too acidic or alkaline, so workers count out 100 worms before placing them in the ground for a few days. If the majority survive, the PH levels are good.

So what are some of the things that you would buy from the American market if you were able to import them?

ISIS SALCINES: Any supplies, the more simple things. The gloves for the workers, the shoes, the boots, the irrigation system. I need everything.

AMY GUTTMAN: How much could you increase your production here at this farm if you had a few of the things on your wish list, PH meters as an example?

ISIS SALCINES: I think that maybe between 20 and 30 percent.

AMY GUTTMAN: Since Raul Castro succeeded his brother, Fidel, as President in 2008, the Cuban Government has taken small steps away from Communist dogma that defined its Revolution…softening the state monopoly on distributing agricultural goods, allowing Cubans to own their homes, and permitting them to run their own shops and restaurants.

Despite an increase in small businesses, greater access to the Internet and other changes here, Cubans I’ve spoken to fear the path toward trade with the United States isn’t developing fast enough.

HUGO CANCIO: As an American businessman, I’d like to see, and as a consultant for some American companies, I would like to see more progress.

AMY GUTTMAN: Hugo Cancio fled Cuba for Miami with his mother and sister in 1982, when he was just 16. In the 1990s, when the U.S. and Cuba let Cuban-Americans visit relatives on the island, Cancio set-up a travel agency in Miami. Today, he also publishes the English-language bi-monthly magazine “On Cuba,” with offices in Havana.

HUGO CANCIO: I have been focused 100 percent on Cuba. I’ve put all of my emotions and energy into this whole process that we’re experiencing today.

AMY GUTTMAN: Cancio says in the past year, the arrival of Western Union in Cuba and the approval of commercial airline flights from nine American cities has made it easier for Cubans to access cash. In addition, remittances from friends and family in the U.S. hit a record $3.3 billion last year. With travel restrictions eased, Americans spent more than a billion dollars in Cuba in the first six months of this year, the number of U.S. tourists nearly doubled.

To meet the growing demand, American and international hotel chains are building or remodeling properties, typically co-owned by the Cuban government, like the La Manzana complex near Old Havana.

HUGO CANCIO: This park represents the old and the new, and I think will continue to do so.

AMY GUTTMAN: And now, it’s the foreground for the many cranes and building works going on.

HUGO CANCIO: Cranes mean prosperity, you know, something’s brewing in the economy. There are companies that used to be here prior to 1959 whose properties and businesses were nationalized or confiscated or expropriated, and they’re willing to forgive and forget their claims against the government to be the first one to get in here. It’s taking a bit too long and people are readjusting their expectations.

AMY GUTTMAN: American companies expecting to do business in Cuba exhibited at Havana’s annual International Business Fair in October, including General Electric and NAPA Auto Parts. They join a queue of foreign companies from Canada to China that have been investing in Cuba for decades. Cancio warns the Cuban Government is cautious to avoid the over-dependence on America that helped fuel the revolution.

HUGO CANCIO: Remember, part of the whole process that led to the Cuban Revolution was the fact that back in 1959, the Cuban economy was in the hands of American businesses and American interests. That Cuba is not coming back.

AMY GUTTMAN: Despite that concern, Ricardo Torres, an Economist at the University of Havana’s Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, says the U.S. and Cuba are natural trading partners.

RICHARD TORRES: Culturally speaking, those two countries are much closer than probably other countries and the fact there are almost two million Cubans living in the United States, means that there is a powerful force out there that will, you know, stick the two countries very close.

AMY GUTTMAN: Is there any concern that interest from foreign investors will wane if it takes too long?

RICHARD TORRES: Yes, there might be a problem with that. We need facts to tell people that we are ready and we are open for business.

AMY GUTTMAN: Torres says Cuba’s crumbling infrastructure is an area ripe for deals with American investors.

RICARDO TORRES: I think there are billions of dollars to be invested in that sector over the coming decades. We are talking about roads, we are talking about railroads, we are talking about airports, talking about ports, we are talking about telecommunications.

AMY GUTTMAN: Torres points to the special economic zone established at the Port of Mariel, an hour outside of Havana, which has drawn foreign investment mainly from Brazil and Singapore. It’s a state of the art deepwater port with huge container terminals and warehouses.

Port officials from several American states have been making visits here. Already, government officials from Virginia and Louisiana have made future agreements to facilitate trade between the U.S. and Cuba.

Those agreements envision ramping up imports and exports when the existing trade restrictions with Cuba are eased. Mariel port official Wendy Barroto says the Cuban Government has offered tax breaks, expedited permits, and built a monorail line to attract more foreign companies.

WENDY BARROTO: The total completion for this area is estimated in about 30 years.

AMY GUTTMAN: What industries are you hoping to attract here?

WENDY BARROTO: They are basically logistics services, pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing, with priority given to food processing and packing, and steel works.

AMY GUTTMAN: While American companies wait for these deals to go through…Saul Berenthal is optimistic his tractors will one day plough Cuban soil. Berenthal says he understands why Cuba has been slow to trust the U.S.

SAUL BERENTHAL: The difficulty lies between developing a trust with a country that on one side says we want to do business with you and on the other side has an embargo that forbids practically any activity in the business world.

AMY GUTTMAN: So you’re hopeful that eventually your tractors will come to Cuba.

SAUL BERENTHAL: In time, with the proper political changes that must be put in place, yes.

AMY GUTTMAN: Visitors to Cuba may find the lack of modernization part of the country’s charm, but if Cuban farmers and American investors get their way, oxen that still till these fields may finally be replaced.

Cuban-American entrepreneur Saul Berenthal owns Cleber, an Alabama-based tractor manufacturing business. He’s among the first to obtain a U.S. license to export agricultural machines, like the ones seen here, to Cuba.

SAUL BERENTHAL: This is an opportunity for us to go back and see, in my mind, how do we help the two communities together? Because I believe, through commerce, through business, and not politics, is the best way of bringing the peoples together.

AMY GUTTMAN: Berenthal also believes better machines will help Cubans decrease their dependence on imports, which account for 80 percent of the island’s food supply.

SAUL BERENTHAL: What we chose was a tractor that was designed in the late 1940s for the U.S. family farm. Very much like what you see here and very much like what you see throughout the whole country.

AMY GUTTMAN: Cuba has yet to approve the sale of Berenthal’s tractors. When it does, he plans to ship them assembled, but one day he hopes to set up a factory here so Cubans can build them. Berenthal was born and raised in Havana, the son of European immigrants who fled the Holocaust. His parents were successful merchants who imported American products until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 when they left Havana for Miami.

SAUL BERENTHAL: The socialist economic model is to keep the land in the hands of the people who work the land, and therefore every Cuban that is willing to, is given X amount of land, for them to cultivate and they get the government to buy their crop, and what we’re doing is trying to bring some technology that will allow them to be more productive with what they do.

AMY GUTTMAN: The Cuban Government buys a portion of what farmers produce to stock bodegas where Cubans use ration cards to buy food. Farmers can sell the rest at produce stands for cash.

Agriculture is one of the biggest sectors targeted for stronger trade with the U.S. Since a sanctions reform act in 2000, thirteen states led by Virginia, Alabama, and Louisiana have exported to Cuba limited amounts of products like soybeans, apples, and poultry. Those shipments topped $150 million in the first nine months of this year.

At the same time, the U.S. allowed Cuban imports of coffee for the first time and a greater range of textiles. But Cuba’s largest exports to other countries like rum, tobacco, exotic fruit, and honey have yet to make it to the U.S. market due to the continuing embargo.

ISIS SALCINES: I need tools, I need implements, I need infrastructure for support.

AMY GUTTMAN: Is the trade embargo the obstacle here to developing that land?

ISIS SALCINES: when you have 300 hectares, and you have a pair of oxen. We need tractors.

AMY GUTTMAN: American trade delegations regularly visit the farm, which raises cows and grows lettuce, sugarcane, and Moringa trees, whose leaves are packed with protein, calcium, and other nutrients.

ISIS SALCINES: You can eat the leaves, the flower, everything. Has more calcium than milk, more protein than meat.

AMY GUTTMAN: Without modern tools, the farm uses arduous techniques. For example, it doesn’t have PH meters to test whether the soil is too acidic or alkaline, so workers count out 100 worms before placing them in the ground for a few days. If the majority survive, the PH levels are good.

So what are some of the things that you would buy from the American market if you were able to import them?

ISIS SALCINES: Any supplies, the more simple things. The gloves for the workers, the shoes, the boots, the irrigation system. I need everything.

AMY GUTTMAN: How much could you increase your production here at this farm if you had a few of the things on your wish list, PH meters as an example?

ISIS SALCINES: I think that maybe between 20 and 30 percent.

AMY GUTTMAN: Since Raul Castro succeeded his brother, Fidel, as President in 2008, the Cuban Government has taken small steps away from Communist dogma that defined its Revolution…softening the state monopoly on distributing agricultural goods, allowing Cubans to own their homes, and permitting them to run their own shops and restaurants.

Despite an increase in small businesses, greater access to the Internet and other changes here, Cubans I’ve spoken to fear the path toward trade with the United States isn’t developing fast enough.

HUGO CANCIO: As an American businessman, I’d like to see, and as a consultant for some American companies, I would like to see more progress.

AMY GUTTMAN: Hugo Cancio fled Cuba for Miami with his mother and sister in 1982, when he was just 16. In the 1990s, when the U.S. and Cuba let Cuban-Americans visit relatives on the island, Cancio set-up a travel agency in Miami. Today, he also publishes the English-language bi-monthly magazine “On Cuba,” with offices in Havana.

HUGO CANCIO: I have been focused 100 percent on Cuba. I’ve put all of my emotions and energy into this whole process that we’re experiencing today.

AMY GUTTMAN: Cancio says in the past year, the arrival of Western Union in Cuba and the approval of commercial airline flights from nine American cities has made it easier for Cubans to access cash. In addition, remittances from friends and family in the U.S. hit a record $3.3 billion last year. With travel restrictions eased, Americans spent more than a billion dollars in Cuba in the first six months of this year, the number of U.S. tourists nearly doubled.

To meet the growing demand, American and international hotel chains are building or remodeling properties, typically co-owned by the Cuban government, like the La Manzana complex near Old Havana.

HUGO CANCIO: This park represents the old and the new, and I think will continue to do so.

AMY GUTTMAN: And now, it’s the foreground for the many cranes and building works going on.

HUGO CANCIO: Cranes mean prosperity, you know, something’s brewing in the economy. There are companies that used to be here prior to 1959 whose properties and businesses were nationalized or confiscated or expropriated, and they’re willing to forgive and forget their claims against the government to be the first one to get in here. It’s taking a bit too long and people are readjusting their expectations.

AMY GUTTMAN: American companies expecting to do business in Cuba exhibited at Havana’s annual International Business Fair in October, including General Electric and NAPA Auto Parts. They join a queue of foreign companies from Canada to China that have been investing in Cuba for decades. Cancio warns the Cuban Government is cautious to avoid the over-dependence on America that helped fuel the revolution.

HUGO CANCIO: Remember, part of the whole process that led to the Cuban Revolution was the fact that back in 1959, the Cuban economy was in the hands of American businesses and American interests. That Cuba is not coming back.

AMY GUTTMAN: Despite that concern, Ricardo Torres, an Economist at the University of Havana’s Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, says the U.S. and Cuba are natural trading partners.

RICHARD TORRES: Culturally speaking, those two countries are much closer than probably other countries and the fact there are almost two million Cubans living in the United States, means that there is a powerful force out there that will, you know, stick the two countries very close.

AMY GUTTMAN: Is there any concern that interest from foreign investors will wane if it takes too long?

RICHARD TORRES: Yes, there might be a problem with that. We need facts to tell people that we are ready and we are open for business.

AMY GUTTMAN: Torres says Cuba’s crumbling infrastructure is an area ripe for deals with American investors.

RICARDO TORRES: I think there are billions of dollars to be invested in that sector over the coming decades. We are talking about roads, we are talking about railroads, we are talking about airports, talking about ports, we are talking about telecommunications.

AMY GUTTMAN: Torres points to the special economic zone established at the Port of Mariel, an hour outside of Havana, which has drawn foreign investment mainly from Brazil and Singapore. It’s a state of the art deepwater port with huge container terminals and warehouses.

Port officials from several American states have been making visits here. Already, government officials from Virginia and Louisiana have made future agreements to facilitate trade between the U.S. and Cuba.

Those agreements envision ramping up imports and exports when the existing trade restrictions with Cuba are eased. Mariel port official Wendy Barroto says the Cuban Government has offered tax breaks, expedited permits, and built a monorail line to attract more foreign companies.

WENDY BARROTO: The total completion for this area is estimated in about 30 years.

AMY GUTTMAN: What industries are you hoping to attract here?

WENDY BARROTO: They are basically logistics services, pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing, with priority given to food processing and packing, and steel works.

AMY GUTTMAN: While American companies wait for these deals to go through…Saul Berenthal is optimistic his tractors will one day plough Cuban soil. Berenthal says he understands why Cuba has been slow to trust the U.S.

SAUL BERENTHAL: The difficulty lies between developing a trust with a country that on one side says we want to do business with you and on the other side has an embargo that forbids practically any activity in the business world.

AMY GUTTMAN: So you’re hopeful that eventually your tractors will come to Cuba.

SAUL BERENTHAL: In time, with the proper political changes that must be put in place, yes.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/embargo-cuba-trade-slowly/feed/010:24In 2014, after a five-decade freeze, President Obama announced the U.S. would begin re-establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba. But last week's passing of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is a reminder that the U.S. embargo remains in effect for most economic sectors while Cuba's government has been slow to approve new deals. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Amy Guttman reports.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio AMY GUTTMAN: Visitors to Cuba may find the lack of modernization part of the country’s charm, but if Cuban farmers and American investors get their way, oxen that still till these fields may finally be replaced. Cuban-Am PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/embargo-cuba-trade-slowly/News Wrap: U.S. unemployment at a 9-year lowhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/UpriUQtIDLs/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-u-s-unemployment-9-year-low/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 23:45:03 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200181

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day’s other news: The U.S. economy posted solid job growth for November, with the unemployment rate hitting a nine-year low. The Labor Department reported U.S. employers added about 178,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent, largely because many people stopped looking for work.

Stocks were mostly flat on Wall Street today, in spite the better-than-expected jobs report, but crude oil prices posted their biggest weekly gain since February of 2011. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 21 points to close at 19170. The Nasdaq rose four points, and the S&P 500 added less than a point. For the week, the Dow gained a fraction of a percent, the Nasdaq fell nearly 3 percent, and the S&P 500 slipped 1 percent.

House lawmakers overwhelmingly backed a nearly $619 billion bipartisan defense bill today. It will give U.S. troops their biggest pay raise since 2010. It also prohibits the Pentagon from closing military bases and the prison at Guantanamo Bay. While most members of Congress supported the bill, some criticized it for including over $3 billion more in war funding than last year’s budget.

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.): Enough is enough. Instead of writing blank checks to the Pentagon, Congress needs to live up to its constitutional obligation to debate matters of war and peace. We need to rip up the 2001 blank check for endless war. We need to stop funding wars without end with no debate on the cost and consequences to our troops or to the American people.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week.

Officials in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, today raised the death toll from days of fierce wildfires to 13 people. Thousands of residents also returned home for the first time to survey the extent of the devastation. Officials said the number of damaged homes and buildings is now close to 1,000.

In Indonesia, 200,000 people flooded Jakarta today to protest against the city’s Christian governor, who is being prosecuted for allegedly insulting the Koran. The sea of conservative Muslim demonstrators gathered peacefully to demand the governor be jailed for blasphemy. Ten people were arrested by police, who accused the dissenters of using the protest to overthrow the government.

And Ford Motor Company is recalling more than 680,000 vehicles for potentially faulty seat belts. The recall affects its mid-size sedans, like the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, that were mostly sold in the U.S. The automaker says the seat belts might not restrain passengers in a crash.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day’s other news: The U.S. economy posted solid job growth for November, with the unemployment rate hitting a nine-year low. The Labor Department reported U.S. employers added about 178,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent, largely because many people stopped looking for work.

Stocks were mostly flat on Wall Street today, in spite the better-than-expected jobs report, but crude oil prices posted their biggest weekly gain since February of 2011. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 21 points to close at 19170. The Nasdaq rose four points, and the S&P 500 added less than a point. For the week, the Dow gained a fraction of a percent, the Nasdaq fell nearly 3 percent, and the S&P 500 slipped 1 percent.

House lawmakers overwhelmingly backed a nearly $619 billion bipartisan defense bill today. It will give U.S. troops their biggest pay raise since 2010. It also prohibits the Pentagon from closing military bases and the prison at Guantanamo Bay. While most members of Congress supported the bill, some criticized it for including over $3 billion more in war funding than last year’s budget.

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.): Enough is enough. Instead of writing blank checks to the Pentagon, Congress needs to live up to its constitutional obligation to debate matters of war and peace. We need to rip up the 2001 blank check for endless war. We need to stop funding wars without end with no debate on the cost and consequences to our troops or to the American people.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week.

Officials in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, today raised the death toll from days of fierce wildfires to 13 people. Thousands of residents also returned home for the first time to survey the extent of the devastation. Officials said the number of damaged homes and buildings is now close to 1,000.

In Indonesia, 200,000 people flooded Jakarta today to protest against the city’s Christian governor, who is being prosecuted for allegedly insulting the Koran. The sea of conservative Muslim demonstrators gathered peacefully to demand the governor be jailed for blasphemy. Ten people were arrested by police, who accused the dissenters of using the protest to overthrow the government.

And Ford Motor Company is recalling more than 680,000 vehicles for potentially faulty seat belts. The recall affects its mid-size sedans, like the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, that were mostly sold in the U.S. The automaker says the seat belts might not restrain passengers in a crash.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-u-s-unemployment-9-year-low/feed/03:07In our news wrap Friday, the unemployment rate in November hit a nine-year low, dropping to 4.6 percent, as 178,000 new jobs were added and many people stopped looking for work. Also, House lawmakers overwhelmingly backed a nearly $619 billion bipartisan defense bill that would give troops their biggest pay raise since 2010 and prohibit the Pentagon from closing bases or the Guantanamo Bay prison.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day&#8217;s other news: The U.S. economy posted solid job growth for November, with the unemployment rate hitting a nine-year low. The Labor Department reported U.S. employers added about 178,000 PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-u-s-unemployment-9-year-low/Why James Mattis could be an ‘awkward fit’ for the Trump administrationhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/BSpJQ1CZDkg/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/james-mattis-awkward-fit-trump-administration/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 23:40:59 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200215

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, who is the man President-elect Trump has picked to be his secretary of defense? What’s his track record, and how does he think the United States should confront the threats that it faces?

For that, we turn to two who know retired Gen. Mattis well. Steve Simon was the senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs on the National Security Council staff during the Obama administration. He’s now a visiting professor of history at Amherst College. And Michael Gordon, he has covered General Mattis as a reporter at The New York Times. For years, Gordon covered the Pentagon, and now the State Department.

And we welcome both of you to the “NewsHour.”

Let me start with you, Michael Gordon. Tell us what you know about James Mattis, beyond what we reported a moment ago.

MICHAEL GORDON, The New York Times: Well, he’s certainly an unconventional choice for secretary of defense, simply because he’s only been out of the military for three years.

He’s been a Marine in some of the — a Marine commander in the hottest wars that we have had over the past 10 years, Iraq, Afghanistan, and ran the Central Command, which oversees both those wars. And that’s a position that also involved him with a lot of diplomacy in the region, I think.

But he’s famous also for a lot of his Mattis-isms, his kind of sayings. I remember, when I was in Barwana, Iraq, there was a sign on one of the outposts that said, “Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”

I mean, that pretty much expresses I think Mattis’ approach. He was prepared to use violence to achieve ends in war, but he also sought to work with the population and to, you know, constrain the violence as much as possible, which wasn’t always easy in an environment like Iraq.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Simon, what would you add to that, and where did this nickname “Mad Dog” come from?

STEVE SIMON, Former National Security Council Staffer: Well, look, I have never seen him in combat, so I don’t know how mad a dog he can be, but certainly in his capacity as commander and as a senior U.S. official dealing with national security issues, I never saw him as anything less than self-possessed and having a cool head.

So, I’m not really sure where that epithet comes from. He’s also known by soldiers who worked with him and for him as the warrior monk because he does have a somewhat monkish temperament. You know, he’s in some ways really into, you know, self-denial and focusing on his troops.

And that has won him a great deal of loyalty, which will stand him in good stead if he’s confirmed by Congress as secretary of defense.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Michael Gordon, you said a moment ago he’s prepared to use violence, even as he cares about the troops. And as a leader, one would expect that he would.

But what is his view of the role of the military in carrying out foreign policy?

MICHAEL GORDON: Well, as Steve pointed out, he’s not a one-sided person. Every military person has to execute military operations, which means you have to fight.

And fight to Baghdad or fighting in Afghanistan, all these environments wasn’t easy. And he’s also famous of his study of military history, his thousands of books, the fact that he claims not to own a television. That’s where the warrior monk comes from.

But he has some views on foreign policy that really put him, I think, in the mainstream. For example, he doesn’t want to rip up the Iran agreement. He’s criticized the agreement. He said he wished it would impose stricter constraints on Iran’s nuclear program. But he said just walking away from it would work against American interests, that the allies would never go along with that. He’s against torture. And president-elect Trump has remarked on that.

He has argued against using that. He argues that it’s simply not effective. And he’s wary of Russia, which, you know, president-elect Trump, at times, has implied that he’s sympathetic with Vladimir Putin or might want to work together with Vladimir Putin in Syria. I think Mattis would be extremely skeptical of that kind of approach.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, fill in more of that picture, Steve Simon. How do you see Mattis aligning with what we know of what Donald Trump thinks?

STEVE SIMON: Well, he’s a bit of an awkward fit, primarily, I think, because he does support U.S. compliance with the deal negotiated with Iran to contain its nuclear program and to block its pathway towards a bomb.

He has referred to it as providing what he’s called a nuclear pause, but not a nuclear halt, and said, in effect, a pause is better than nothing.

Where he does differ, I think, from the outgoing administration is his view that, even as the United States maintains its commitment to the deal it negotiated, that it pushes back on Iran’s regional maneuvers. And I think, and, by that, Jim Mattis would point to do things.

One is Syria, where the Iranians are very, very deeply involved. And the other is in Iraq, where the Iranians gained a great deal of influence after the U.S. overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. And I think, as commander of Central Command, General Mattis is probably quite sensitive to the fact that many of the deaths of U.S. servicemen in Iraq were attributable to weapons designed or provided by Iran.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What about — Michael Gordon, people are talking, of course, about the fact that he’s going to — if he’s confirmed, he’s going to have to have this exemption from the law that says military people who are few than seven years out of the military can’t be secretary of defense.

How do you see him running that department, coming from the military?

MICHAEL GORDON: Well, first of all, I think the waiver will go through. Senator McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, has said he supports it. Senator Gillibrand said she opposes it, but I thinks he has sufficient support.

I think that he has enough experience running large organizations, running the Central Command. He ran the Joint Forces command. That requires a certain amount of bureaucratic capability and finesse. So I think he, in his own mind, understands — I mean, he would be the first person since George Marshall to do this — that there is a responsibility on him to try to run the department as a civilian that he’s only been for three years and not as a military man.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Simon, how do you see that? Because there has been this tradition — it’s in law — that someone who’s been in the military recently shouldn’t be running the Pentagon. How do you see him fitting into that?

STEVE SIMON: Well, look, he’s going to have to deal with issues that he hasn’t had to deal with as a combatant commander or a unified commander, R&D, weapons acquisition, large-scale budget issues, you know, personnel issues of an immense scale.

In addition to being a politician in his dealing with Congress in particular, he’s going to have to learn how to deal effectively with a White House staff. That can be a challenge, especially in an administration like the one that’s shaping up, I think.

And he’s going to have to be a diplomat as well. Now, I have seen him work in a diplomatic mode, and I think he’s gifted in that domain. I don’t think he’s going to have a problem there. So, all in all, you know, I would say that he has good prospects for success.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Simon, Michael Gordon, as we learn who General James Mattis is, and he heads for confirmation, thank you very much.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, who is the man President-elect Trump has picked to be his secretary of defense? What’s his track record, and how does he think the United States should confront the threats that it faces?

For that, we turn to two who know retired Gen. Mattis well. Steve Simon was the senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs on the National Security Council staff during the Obama administration. He’s now a visiting professor of history at Amherst College. And Michael Gordon, he has covered General Mattis as a reporter at The New York Times. For years, Gordon covered the Pentagon, and now the State Department.

And we welcome both of you to the “NewsHour.”

Let me start with you, Michael Gordon. Tell us what you know about James Mattis, beyond what we reported a moment ago.

MICHAEL GORDON, The New York Times: Well, he’s certainly an unconventional choice for secretary of defense, simply because he’s only been out of the military for three years.

He’s been a Marine in some of the — a Marine commander in the hottest wars that we have had over the past 10 years, Iraq, Afghanistan, and ran the Central Command, which oversees both those wars. And that’s a position that also involved him with a lot of diplomacy in the region, I think.

But he’s famous also for a lot of his Mattis-isms, his kind of sayings. I remember, when I was in Barwana, Iraq, there was a sign on one of the outposts that said, “Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”

I mean, that pretty much expresses I think Mattis’ approach. He was prepared to use violence to achieve ends in war, but he also sought to work with the population and to, you know, constrain the violence as much as possible, which wasn’t always easy in an environment like Iraq.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Simon, what would you add to that, and where did this nickname “Mad Dog” come from?

STEVE SIMON, Former National Security Council Staffer: Well, look, I have never seen him in combat, so I don’t know how mad a dog he can be, but certainly in his capacity as commander and as a senior U.S. official dealing with national security issues, I never saw him as anything less than self-possessed and having a cool head.

So, I’m not really sure where that epithet comes from. He’s also known by soldiers who worked with him and for him as the warrior monk because he does have a somewhat monkish temperament. You know, he’s in some ways really into, you know, self-denial and focusing on his troops.

And that has won him a great deal of loyalty, which will stand him in good stead if he’s confirmed by Congress as secretary of defense.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Michael Gordon, you said a moment ago he’s prepared to use violence, even as he cares about the troops. And as a leader, one would expect that he would.

But what is his view of the role of the military in carrying out foreign policy?

MICHAEL GORDON: Well, as Steve pointed out, he’s not a one-sided person. Every military person has to execute military operations, which means you have to fight.

And fight to Baghdad or fighting in Afghanistan, all these environments wasn’t easy. And he’s also famous of his study of military history, his thousands of books, the fact that he claims not to own a television. That’s where the warrior monk comes from.

But he has some views on foreign policy that really put him, I think, in the mainstream. For example, he doesn’t want to rip up the Iran agreement. He’s criticized the agreement. He said he wished it would impose stricter constraints on Iran’s nuclear program. But he said just walking away from it would work against American interests, that the allies would never go along with that. He’s against torture. And president-elect Trump has remarked on that.

He has argued against using that. He argues that it’s simply not effective. And he’s wary of Russia, which, you know, president-elect Trump, at times, has implied that he’s sympathetic with Vladimir Putin or might want to work together with Vladimir Putin in Syria. I think Mattis would be extremely skeptical of that kind of approach.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, fill in more of that picture, Steve Simon. How do you see Mattis aligning with what we know of what Donald Trump thinks?

STEVE SIMON: Well, he’s a bit of an awkward fit, primarily, I think, because he does support U.S. compliance with the deal negotiated with Iran to contain its nuclear program and to block its pathway towards a bomb.

He has referred to it as providing what he’s called a nuclear pause, but not a nuclear halt, and said, in effect, a pause is better than nothing.

Where he does differ, I think, from the outgoing administration is his view that, even as the United States maintains its commitment to the deal it negotiated, that it pushes back on Iran’s regional maneuvers. And I think, and, by that, Jim Mattis would point to do things.

One is Syria, where the Iranians are very, very deeply involved. And the other is in Iraq, where the Iranians gained a great deal of influence after the U.S. overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. And I think, as commander of Central Command, General Mattis is probably quite sensitive to the fact that many of the deaths of U.S. servicemen in Iraq were attributable to weapons designed or provided by Iran.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What about — Michael Gordon, people are talking, of course, about the fact that he’s going to — if he’s confirmed, he’s going to have to have this exemption from the law that says military people who are few than seven years out of the military can’t be secretary of defense.

How do you see him running that department, coming from the military?

MICHAEL GORDON: Well, first of all, I think the waiver will go through. Senator McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, has said he supports it. Senator Gillibrand said she opposes it, but I thinks he has sufficient support.

I think that he has enough experience running large organizations, running the Central Command. He ran the Joint Forces command. That requires a certain amount of bureaucratic capability and finesse. So I think he, in his own mind, understands — I mean, he would be the first person since George Marshall to do this — that there is a responsibility on him to try to run the department as a civilian that he’s only been for three years and not as a military man.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Simon, how do you see that? Because there has been this tradition — it’s in law — that someone who’s been in the military recently shouldn’t be running the Pentagon. How do you see him fitting into that?

STEVE SIMON: Well, look, he’s going to have to deal with issues that he hasn’t had to deal with as a combatant commander or a unified commander, R&D, weapons acquisition, large-scale budget issues, you know, personnel issues of an immense scale.

In addition to being a politician in his dealing with Congress in particular, he’s going to have to learn how to deal effectively with a White House staff. That can be a challenge, especially in an administration like the one that’s shaping up, I think.

And he’s going to have to be a diplomat as well. Now, I have seen him work in a diplomatic mode, and I think he’s gifted in that domain. I don’t think he’s going to have a problem there. So, all in all, you know, I would say that he has good prospects for success.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Simon, Michael Gordon, as we learn who General James Mattis is, and he heads for confirmation, thank you very much.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/james-mattis-awkward-fit-trump-administration/feed/08:10Who is James “Mad Dog” Mattis, the president-elect’s choice for secretary of defense? Judy Woodruff sits down with two who know the retired general well: Michael Gordon of The New York Times and Steve Simon, a former national security council staffer in the Obama administration. They discuss why Mattis is an 'unconventional' option, the challenges he may face and his monk-like temperament.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: So, who is the man President-elect Trump has picked to be his secretary of defense? What&#8217;s his track record, and how does he think the United States should confront the threats that it faces? For tha PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/james-mattis-awkward-fit-trump-administration/Cuban attitudes toward Castro range from devout to cynicalhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/hRRl7imbj4E/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cuban-attitudes-toward-castro-range-devout-cynical/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 23:30:54 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200185

JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: In Cuba, a procession with Fidel Castro’s ashes is approaching the city of Santiago, where the dictator, who died last Friday, began his revolutionary journey nearly 60 years ago.

In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin look at Castro’s legacy and the future of the island, starting along the route of his final journey.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The road to Fidel Castro’s final resting place was lined with the revolution’s faithful, for whom it’s never too early to be wrapped in the flag.

With the military that Castro created circling overhead and leading the way, his ashes drove by into the morning sun. For more than 55 years, Castro was Cuba’s indispensable force, and many here expressed a sense of loss; 93-year-old Zoila Andreu Sain needed help from her 66-year-old daughter, Ailsa. They live together on the parade route.

They were joined by a third generation, 23-year-old Giselle Gallego. This family’s revolutionary faith hasn’t faltered.

GISELLE GALLEGO (through translator): My admiration for Fidel comes above everything. He wasn’t just a leader for the Cuban revolution, but a leader for the world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The two matriarchs show off their favorite photos, a younger son, Eugenio, at the commander’s side. Fidel made him the head of a housing development program, and provided the family with opportunities they have never forgotten.

AILSA NEREY ANDREU (through translator): Women stopped being domestic objects and were given the chance to work, all thanks to the revolution and to Fidel.

ZOILA ANDREU SAIN (through translator): I love Fidel. I love him very, very, very much. He fought for Cuba.

NARRATOR: They had marched right across the island in a triumphant progress, joyfully acclaimed all the way.

NICK SCHIFRIN: January 1959, Castro and his men seized Havana and overthrew the Batista dictatorship. So began the hero’s myth. He’d descended from the mountains and convinced people he was Cuba’s destined savior. For his fans, that origin story still holds.

ZOILA ANDREU SAIN (through translator): He took everything that was bad, and made it better. He will continue to do so from the cemetery where he will rest.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But 30 miles outside of Havana, Fidel Castro’s legacy is not as universally positive.

This is Hershey, named after the American chocolate baron, today, population about 3,000. Castro’s 1959 revolution promised a better future. Here, as in many small towns across Cuba, the economic promises of the revolution have not been fulfilled.

The train used to arrive here with Cubans from many towns. Today, it brings only a few locals, just enough to keep 29-year-old Carlos Gonzalez afloat. He sells tiny, folded pizzas for 20 cents.

CARLOS GONZALEZ, Hershey, Cuba Resident (through translator): We struggle every day. I wake up at 3:00 a.m. to be able to afford food, afford clothes, and keep on going.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Garcia’s oldest client is the city’s oldest resident; 92-year-old Amparo Dejongh was the first person born here.

Who’s this? That’s you?

AMPARO DEJONGH: Yes.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Wow. Wonderful. And what kind of town was Hershey?

AMPARO DEJONGH (through translator): It was conceived to be perfect, in housing, in education, in social order.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Her photos show a model town created exactly a century ago. Hershey’s sugar mill was one of the world’s most modern. After the revolution, Castro nationalized the factory and all other American property. Eventually, the economy collapsed. Today, the factory is a heap of rust. Once prosperous streets are dotted with homes long abandoned.

Dejongh blames ineffective local government officials.

AMPARO DEJONGH (through translator): The political machine is very big. Here, they appoint a leader and he does whatever he wants.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Residents are thankful for the revolution’s positive advances. The racial segregation that Hershey imposed on its workers has been replaced with apparent racial equality. Residents receive free health care, and students get free education.

But, for many, the economic future remains bleak.

When you think about 1959 and you think about what this country has been through since then, do you view the legacy positively or negatively?

He didn’t want to answer that question. His fear, says dissident Carlos Millares Falcon, is widespread.

What would happen to you if you criticized the government publicly?

CARLOS MILLARES FALCON (through translator): Automatically, they would drive me to the headquarters of internal security very fast.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In his living room, Falcon keeps American and European flags. He says Cuba lacks Western freedoms of speech, participation, and multiple political parties. That keeps criticism rare and the opposition fractured.

In March in Havana, President Obama spoke alongside current President Raul Castro. Obama argued that normalizing relations would force the Cuban government to liberalize. But from January to October this year, the government is reported to have detained 9,125 people, more than quadruple the 2010 number.

CARLOS MILLARES FALCON (through translator): The pressure on us has increased. I don’t think Fidel’s death will create any policy change. The government will maintain the same policy of zero tolerance.

ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ (through translator): For us young people, we do need a change. We’re tired of the same old, same old.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Cuba, the Internet is rare and expensive. So he collects the entertainment people can’t get, and copies it onto hard drives, called packets. They’re full of local musicians who pay to be in the packet, alongside illegally copied TV shows, and bad shark movies.

The packets are delivered by bike messenger. Unless the Internet opens, the packet will only get more popular, and Rodriguez predicts that’s not coming anytime soon.

ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ (through translator): The packet will last. I don’t see an end to it right now.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In many ways, Cuba’s stuck in the past. But people seize whatever openings they can find; 80 percent of the country works for the government, but, in the last decade, Jesus Reyes and half-a-million others have been allowed to go private.

He’s trained as a nuclear physicist. His wife’s a biologist, and, together, their job was finding a cure for cancer, but that only paid each of them $40 a month. So while she stayed in science, he’s driving a taxi.

JESUS REYES, Taxi Driver (through translator): Unfortunately, we have an inverted pyramid here. The people who give more to society make less money, and those who give less make more.

NICK SCHIFRIN: He and his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air can make four or five times what he made as a government-paid physicist. He wishes that wasn’t the case. He still believes in the revolution’s principles, but he believes that Cuba needs to change.

JESUS REYES (through translator): It’s one thing to hold static, like we are today, without perfecting or improving, and it’s another thing to slowly improve. That’s what people like me aspire to, where our individual values are acknowledged.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Castro always said that revolution was a process and that change was inevitable. But holding onto the revolution’s principles means that whatever change does come is likely going to come slowly.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: In Cuba, a procession with Fidel Castro’s ashes is approaching the city of Santiago, where the dictator, who died last Friday, began his revolutionary journey nearly 60 years ago.

In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin look at Castro’s legacy and the future of the island, starting along the route of his final journey.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The road to Fidel Castro’s final resting place was lined with the revolution’s faithful, for whom it’s never too early to be wrapped in the flag.

With the military that Castro created circling overhead and leading the way, his ashes drove by into the morning sun. For more than 55 years, Castro was Cuba’s indispensable force, and many here expressed a sense of loss; 93-year-old Zoila Andreu Sain needed help from her 66-year-old daughter, Ailsa. They live together on the parade route.

They were joined by a third generation, 23-year-old Giselle Gallego. This family’s revolutionary faith hasn’t faltered.

GISELLE GALLEGO (through translator): My admiration for Fidel comes above everything. He wasn’t just a leader for the Cuban revolution, but a leader for the world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The two matriarchs show off their favorite photos, a younger son, Eugenio, at the commander’s side. Fidel made him the head of a housing development program, and provided the family with opportunities they have never forgotten.

AILSA NEREY ANDREU (through translator): Women stopped being domestic objects and were given the chance to work, all thanks to the revolution and to Fidel.

ZOILA ANDREU SAIN (through translator): I love Fidel. I love him very, very, very much. He fought for Cuba.

NARRATOR: They had marched right across the island in a triumphant progress, joyfully acclaimed all the way.

NICK SCHIFRIN: January 1959, Castro and his men seized Havana and overthrew the Batista dictatorship. So began the hero’s myth. He’d descended from the mountains and convinced people he was Cuba’s destined savior. For his fans, that origin story still holds.

ZOILA ANDREU SAIN (through translator): He took everything that was bad, and made it better. He will continue to do so from the cemetery where he will rest.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But 30 miles outside of Havana, Fidel Castro’s legacy is not as universally positive.

This is Hershey, named after the American chocolate baron, today, population about 3,000. Castro’s 1959 revolution promised a better future. Here, as in many small towns across Cuba, the economic promises of the revolution have not been fulfilled.

The train used to arrive here with Cubans from many towns. Today, it brings only a few locals, just enough to keep 29-year-old Carlos Gonzalez afloat. He sells tiny, folded pizzas for 20 cents.

CARLOS GONZALEZ, Hershey, Cuba Resident (through translator): We struggle every day. I wake up at 3:00 a.m. to be able to afford food, afford clothes, and keep on going.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Garcia’s oldest client is the city’s oldest resident; 92-year-old Amparo Dejongh was the first person born here.

Who’s this? That’s you?

AMPARO DEJONGH: Yes.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Wow. Wonderful. And what kind of town was Hershey?

AMPARO DEJONGH (through translator): It was conceived to be perfect, in housing, in education, in social order.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Her photos show a model town created exactly a century ago. Hershey’s sugar mill was one of the world’s most modern. After the revolution, Castro nationalized the factory and all other American property. Eventually, the economy collapsed. Today, the factory is a heap of rust. Once prosperous streets are dotted with homes long abandoned.

Dejongh blames ineffective local government officials.

AMPARO DEJONGH (through translator): The political machine is very big. Here, they appoint a leader and he does whatever he wants.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Residents are thankful for the revolution’s positive advances. The racial segregation that Hershey imposed on its workers has been replaced with apparent racial equality. Residents receive free health care, and students get free education.

But, for many, the economic future remains bleak.

When you think about 1959 and you think about what this country has been through since then, do you view the legacy positively or negatively?

He didn’t want to answer that question. His fear, says dissident Carlos Millares Falcon, is widespread.

What would happen to you if you criticized the government publicly?

CARLOS MILLARES FALCON (through translator): Automatically, they would drive me to the headquarters of internal security very fast.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In his living room, Falcon keeps American and European flags. He says Cuba lacks Western freedoms of speech, participation, and multiple political parties. That keeps criticism rare and the opposition fractured.

In March in Havana, President Obama spoke alongside current President Raul Castro. Obama argued that normalizing relations would force the Cuban government to liberalize. But from January to October this year, the government is reported to have detained 9,125 people, more than quadruple the 2010 number.

CARLOS MILLARES FALCON (through translator): The pressure on us has increased. I don’t think Fidel’s death will create any policy change. The government will maintain the same policy of zero tolerance.

ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ (through translator): For us young people, we do need a change. We’re tired of the same old, same old.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Cuba, the Internet is rare and expensive. So he collects the entertainment people can’t get, and copies it onto hard drives, called packets. They’re full of local musicians who pay to be in the packet, alongside illegally copied TV shows, and bad shark movies.

The packets are delivered by bike messenger. Unless the Internet opens, the packet will only get more popular, and Rodriguez predicts that’s not coming anytime soon.

ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ (through translator): The packet will last. I don’t see an end to it right now.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In many ways, Cuba’s stuck in the past. But people seize whatever openings they can find; 80 percent of the country works for the government, but, in the last decade, Jesus Reyes and half-a-million others have been allowed to go private.

He’s trained as a nuclear physicist. His wife’s a biologist, and, together, their job was finding a cure for cancer, but that only paid each of them $40 a month. So while she stayed in science, he’s driving a taxi.

JESUS REYES, Taxi Driver (through translator): Unfortunately, we have an inverted pyramid here. The people who give more to society make less money, and those who give less make more.

NICK SCHIFRIN: He and his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air can make four or five times what he made as a government-paid physicist. He wishes that wasn’t the case. He still believes in the revolution’s principles, but he believes that Cuba needs to change.

JESUS REYES (through translator): It’s one thing to hold static, like we are today, without perfecting or improving, and it’s another thing to slowly improve. That’s what people like me aspire to, where our individual values are acknowledged.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Castro always said that revolution was a process and that change was inevitable. But holding onto the revolution’s principles means that whatever change does come is likely going to come slowly.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cuban-attitudes-toward-castro-range-devout-cynical/feed/07:38In the week following Fidel Castro’s death, reactions have been mixed among those who remember his reign or are still influenced by it. For many, Castro was a symbol of Cuba's hope, following the Batista dictatorship, for strong leadership in a new era of prosperity. But for others, his legacy represents unfulfilled promises and relentless control. Special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: In Cuba, a procession with Fidel Castro&#8217;s ashes is approaching the city of Santiago, where the dictator, who died last Friday, began his revolutionary journey nearly 60 years ago. In partn PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cuban-attitudes-toward-castro-range-devout-cynical/These medical volunteers risk their lives to save Mosul’s injuredhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/ipL76S_sc2U/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/american-volunteers-hope-mosuls-injured/#respondThu, 01 Dec 2016 23:35:43 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200098

HARI SREENIVASAN: The six-week-long battle for the ISIS-held city of Mosul has become an increasingly tough urban war for the American-backed Iraqi forces. Up to a million civilians still live in the city.

The front lines are often too dangerous for international aid workers, but two young American volunteers are there saving lives while risking their own.

From Mosul, special correspondent Jane Ferguson and producer Matt McGarry filed this report.

A warning: Viewers may find some of the imagery disturbing.

JANE FERGUSON: Crying in pain, a tiny patient is carried into this basic treatment center in Mosul. His name is Karam. And at just 5 years old, the agony and fear are too much.

“Hawa,” says his father, mortar. His leg was shattered when it was hit two weeks ago. It was operated on, and is now infected. His father tries to comfort him.

For parents, war brings a terrible fear of loss. Two American medics are helping Karam. They have been at this post for about a month, treating civilians injured in the fighting.

How many of your patients are children?

PETE REED, Volunteer Medic: Too many.

DEREK COLEMAN, Volunteer Medic: At least a quarter.

JANE FERGUSON: Injured by?

PETE REED: Everything.

DEREK COLEMAN: Car bombs, mortars, snipers.

PETE REED: Shot.

JANE FERGUSON: Karam is lucky. He managed to find treatment from ISIS doctors. It’s crude, but at least he will be able to walk again. He probably won’t lose the leg.

Is this kind of injury common?

PETE REED: The injury, yes. And actually making it to surgery was less common?

JANE FERGUSON: So, where would have gone for the surgery?

PETE REED: He went in Mosul. There are still operating hospitals there.

JANE FERGUSON: Inside ISIS territory?

PETE REED: Yes.

JANE FERGUSON: These two American volunteers, both just 27 years old, are the first and only point of help civilians and Iraqi army soldiers get this close to the front line of fighting in Mosul.

Pete Reed is from Bordentown, New Jersey. After two tours in Afghanistan as a Marine, he came to Iraq to help.

Derek Coleman is from San Diego. He was a machinist in a factory with some medical training before coming here as a volunteer.

DEREK COLEMAN: I don’t have any kids, girlfriend, wife, nothing like that. So I wanted a little adventure, and see ISIS as an evil enemy, and saw good people fighting against it, and I thought I could help somehow.

And medical work seems to be much more important than carrying a gun and shooting at people.

JANE FERGUSON: Other charities are miles back from the front lines, wary of putting their staff in harm’s way.

Because of ISIS suicide car bombs, the civilians of Mosul are banned from driving cars. Many of the injured wouldn’t survive if Pete and Derek were not this close to the fighting.

DEREK COLEMAN: The location is everything with what we are doing. NGOs and other organizations can’t get anywhere close to where we are.

So, what we are doing is, we are stopping bleeding that would kill someone in five minutes. We are stabilizing patients that hopefully survive the trip to the closest hospital.

Even with us, the hospitals are so far away at this point, that we are afraid of how many patients we lose on the road.

JANE FERGUSON: But being this close to the front puts Derek and Pete at risk. They are always short on supplies, so Pete has gone out to search for any other medical stations to ask for more.

Derek just begins telling us about missing the holiday.

DEREK COLEMAN: Thanksgiving was interesting, because Thanksgiving was also when I left home last year. So, I had a turkey sandwich alone.

JANE FERGUSON: Derek calls to warn Pete to be careful. The fighting has intensified around us.

DEREK COLEMAN: Hey, buddy. How are you doing? We have had quite a few rounds pass really close to our CCP here, worse that yesterday. So I just wanted to give you guys a warning as you are pulling up and just check in with you.

JANE FERGUSON: In the meantime, Derek prepares for the next patients, which will surely come. The conditions here are harsh, but they have learned to manage.

DEREK COLEMAN: As you can see, I’m kind of bloodied here, and I don’t really have time to always clean it all off. So I just try to not look like a I came out of a butcher shop as best I can.

JANE FERGUSON: Pete arrives back empty-handed, his search for supplies unsuccessful, just as more patients are brought in.

The center is also the first point of treatment for many Iraqi soldiers, their bodies brutalized by the urban warfare that rages just down the road. We are not allowed to film the injured and dying soldiers who arrived at the center.

Iraqi special forces medics are here too, some trained by the two young Americans. They often treat civilians, many transported here by the army in war-weathered Humvees. Soon, one pulls up, and a child wrapped in a blanket is lifted from it. A soldier races her into the center. Her aunt stays outside, hysterical with fear and grief.

MAN: Hold her (EXPLETIVE DELETED) head, somebody.

JANE FERGUSON: The small girl has been shot in the head by an ISIS sniper. Incredibly, she is still alive. Pete and Derek fight hard to save her life.

PETE REED: Tell her to stay still, stay still.

JANE FERGUSON: They manage to bandage her head.

PETE REED: Plaster, plaster.

JANE FERGUSON: Despite brave efforts, the little girl died.

Do you think, given what you have witnessed, that ISIS are deliberating targeting civilians?

PETE REED: Yes. They are shooting people with white flags. They are shooting kids.

Last week, we had two kids in a row who had been shot in the neck or the head by a Da’esh sniper because they were fleeing Mosul, not accidental grazing fire or anything like that, proper sniper shots, head and neck and face. Yes, they’re — they’re purposely trying to kill these people who are running away.

JANE FERGUSON: Being in the crossfire and tending to death, his family are worried about him.

PETE REED: Yes, they worry a lot, probably for good reason. Who wouldn’t worry? It’s not like, I don’t know, a ski instructor in Wyoming. I’m on the front lines in the battle for Mosul. They are really, really supportive. They’re just terrified of what I’m doing.

JANE FERGUSON: Are you changed?

PETE REED: Am I changed? Yes. You can only see so many dead kids a day so many days in a row before you are going to be changed.

People see one dead kid or one traumatic thing happen, and it affects them for the rest of their life. I have seen a couple hundred. I’m doing OK.

JANE FERGUSON: Inside, spirits are high, because Karam, the first child we met, is feeling better. A little tenderness and some candy have helped. He has been fortunate to cheat death in this violent place.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jane Ferguson in Mosul, Iraq.

Editor’s note: Many of our viewers have written in asking how they can contribute to the medical volunteer efforts mentioned in this report. Donations can be send via this group, The Academy of Emergency Medicine.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The six-week-long battle for the ISIS-held city of Mosul has become an increasingly tough urban war for the American-backed Iraqi forces. Up to a million civilians still live in the city.

The front lines are often too dangerous for international aid workers, but two young American volunteers are there saving lives while risking their own.

From Mosul, special correspondent Jane Ferguson and producer Matt McGarry filed this report.

A warning: Viewers may find some of the imagery disturbing.

JANE FERGUSON: Crying in pain, a tiny patient is carried into this basic treatment center in Mosul. His name is Karam. And at just 5 years old, the agony and fear are too much.

“Hawa,” says his father, mortar. His leg was shattered when it was hit two weeks ago. It was operated on, and is now infected. His father tries to comfort him.

For parents, war brings a terrible fear of loss. Two American medics are helping Karam. They have been at this post for about a month, treating civilians injured in the fighting.

How many of your patients are children?

PETE REED, Volunteer Medic: Too many.

DEREK COLEMAN, Volunteer Medic: At least a quarter.

JANE FERGUSON: Injured by?

PETE REED: Everything.

DEREK COLEMAN: Car bombs, mortars, snipers.

PETE REED: Shot.

JANE FERGUSON: Karam is lucky. He managed to find treatment from ISIS doctors. It’s crude, but at least he will be able to walk again. He probably won’t lose the leg.

Is this kind of injury common?

PETE REED: The injury, yes. And actually making it to surgery was less common?

JANE FERGUSON: So, where would have gone for the surgery?

PETE REED: He went in Mosul. There are still operating hospitals there.

JANE FERGUSON: Inside ISIS territory?

PETE REED: Yes.

JANE FERGUSON: These two American volunteers, both just 27 years old, are the first and only point of help civilians and Iraqi army soldiers get this close to the front line of fighting in Mosul.

Pete Reed is from Bordentown, New Jersey. After two tours in Afghanistan as a Marine, he came to Iraq to help.

Derek Coleman is from San Diego. He was a machinist in a factory with some medical training before coming here as a volunteer.

DEREK COLEMAN: I don’t have any kids, girlfriend, wife, nothing like that. So I wanted a little adventure, and see ISIS as an evil enemy, and saw good people fighting against it, and I thought I could help somehow.

And medical work seems to be much more important than carrying a gun and shooting at people.

JANE FERGUSON: Other charities are miles back from the front lines, wary of putting their staff in harm’s way.

Because of ISIS suicide car bombs, the civilians of Mosul are banned from driving cars. Many of the injured wouldn’t survive if Pete and Derek were not this close to the fighting.

DEREK COLEMAN: The location is everything with what we are doing. NGOs and other organizations can’t get anywhere close to where we are.

So, what we are doing is, we are stopping bleeding that would kill someone in five minutes. We are stabilizing patients that hopefully survive the trip to the closest hospital.

Even with us, the hospitals are so far away at this point, that we are afraid of how many patients we lose on the road.

JANE FERGUSON: But being this close to the front puts Derek and Pete at risk. They are always short on supplies, so Pete has gone out to search for any other medical stations to ask for more.

Derek just begins telling us about missing the holiday.

DEREK COLEMAN: Thanksgiving was interesting, because Thanksgiving was also when I left home last year. So, I had a turkey sandwich alone.

JANE FERGUSON: Derek calls to warn Pete to be careful. The fighting has intensified around us.

DEREK COLEMAN: Hey, buddy. How are you doing? We have had quite a few rounds pass really close to our CCP here, worse that yesterday. So I just wanted to give you guys a warning as you are pulling up and just check in with you.

JANE FERGUSON: In the meantime, Derek prepares for the next patients, which will surely come. The conditions here are harsh, but they have learned to manage.

DEREK COLEMAN: As you can see, I’m kind of bloodied here, and I don’t really have time to always clean it all off. So I just try to not look like a I came out of a butcher shop as best I can.

JANE FERGUSON: Pete arrives back empty-handed, his search for supplies unsuccessful, just as more patients are brought in.

The center is also the first point of treatment for many Iraqi soldiers, their bodies brutalized by the urban warfare that rages just down the road. We are not allowed to film the injured and dying soldiers who arrived at the center.

Iraqi special forces medics are here too, some trained by the two young Americans. They often treat civilians, many transported here by the army in war-weathered Humvees. Soon, one pulls up, and a child wrapped in a blanket is lifted from it. A soldier races her into the center. Her aunt stays outside, hysterical with fear and grief.

MAN: Hold her (EXPLETIVE DELETED) head, somebody.

JANE FERGUSON: The small girl has been shot in the head by an ISIS sniper. Incredibly, she is still alive. Pete and Derek fight hard to save her life.

PETE REED: Tell her to stay still, stay still.

JANE FERGUSON: They manage to bandage her head.

PETE REED: Plaster, plaster.

JANE FERGUSON: Despite brave efforts, the little girl died.

Do you think, given what you have witnessed, that ISIS are deliberating targeting civilians?

PETE REED: Yes. They are shooting people with white flags. They are shooting kids.

Last week, we had two kids in a row who had been shot in the neck or the head by a Da’esh sniper because they were fleeing Mosul, not accidental grazing fire or anything like that, proper sniper shots, head and neck and face. Yes, they’re — they’re purposely trying to kill these people who are running away.

JANE FERGUSON: Being in the crossfire and tending to death, his family are worried about him.

PETE REED: Yes, they worry a lot, probably for good reason. Who wouldn’t worry? It’s not like, I don’t know, a ski instructor in Wyoming. I’m on the front lines in the battle for Mosul. They are really, really supportive. They’re just terrified of what I’m doing.

JANE FERGUSON: Are you changed?

PETE REED: Am I changed? Yes. You can only see so many dead kids a day so many days in a row before you are going to be changed.

People see one dead kid or one traumatic thing happen, and it affects them for the rest of their life. I have seen a couple hundred. I’m doing OK.

JANE FERGUSON: Inside, spirits are high, because Karam, the first child we met, is feeling better. A little tenderness and some candy have helped. He has been fortunate to cheat death in this violent place.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jane Ferguson in Mosul, Iraq.

Editor’s note: Many of our viewers have written in asking how they can contribute to the medical volunteer efforts mentioned in this report. Donations can be send via this group, The Academy of Emergency Medicine.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/american-volunteers-hope-mosuls-injured/feed/08:36On the front lines of Mosul, Iraq, two young American volunteers aid those injured in battle. Pete Reed and Derek Coleman treat Iraqi soldiers and civilians right in the path of fire, far closer than other medical providers. Without their proximity to the fighting, many more wounded would die. But their location also means they are at enormous risk. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio HARI SREENIVASAN: The six-week-long battle for the ISIS-held city of Mosul has become an increasingly tough urban war for the American-backed Iraqi forces. Up to a million civilians still live in the city. The front line PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/american-volunteers-hope-mosuls-injured/The deals and rhetoric behind the U.S. relationship with Iranhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/DT0pZoFC4CQ/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/deals-rhetoric-behind-u-s-relationship-iran/#respondThu, 01 Dec 2016 23:20:04 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=200136

JUDY WOODRUFF: The United States and Iran have been at odds for 37 years, a standoff that continues even as President Obama signed on to a deal this past summer that sharply limits Iran’s nuclear development.

Just today, as we reported, the U.S. Senate voted to extend sanctions against Tehran.

MARGARET WARNER: What struck me about this book was your portrayal of President Obama as obsessed with Iran and with getting a nuclear deal really from the beginning. Where did that come from?

JAY SOLOMON: So, I really think, when he came in, he saw the need to stop, kind of defuse the Iran weapons program, and the need to kind of avert another U.S. war as converging.

We didn’t know at the time that he was sending secret letters to the supreme leader…

MARGARET WARNER: Yes.

JAY SOLOMON: … that he was really kind of setting up a diplomatic track and was just hoping the Iranians would bite. So, it really was a campaign issue that became a driving vision for him in his first year.

MARGARET WARNER: So, President Obama got his nuclear deal, but he did pay a really big diplomatic price, didn’t he, on many fronts.

JAY SOLOMON: When I was doing the research, it really did kind of dominate so many different factions of his policy.

The negotiations with the Iranians started in secret, which — basically behind the backs of the Israelis and Arabs, which really has continued to this day to serve as a big source of tension with the Obama administration.

Of course, they say there was no connection whatsoever between our Syria policy and the decision not to use airstrikes and our Iran policy. But we have seen kind of since 2013, when Obama backed away from airstrikes, almost kind of the U.S. moving increasingly towards a policy that’s in alignment in some ways with both the Russians and Iranians.

And President Obama has sent messages to the supreme leader in letters and through the Pentagon that, basically, we’re not targeting Assad.

MARGARET WARNER: In fact, Iranian officials had let the White House know that that could completely screw up the talks.

JAY SOLOMON: Yes, the diplomats who were involved were saying, even if we wanted to keep this diplomatic track open, if you start bombing the Assad regime, which really provides Iran strategic depth in the Middle East and its closest Arab ally, it will be difficult for us to continue.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, we have this latest controversy with what has turned out to be $1.7 billion that the U.S. in cash has paid to Iran in the last few months.

It’s about a completely separate negotiation at The Hague, but is it or is it not connected to this nuclear deal?

JAY SOLOMON: Well, I think it all did kind of converge.

On January 16, the agreement was basically implemented. And the next day, we had a prisoner swap and the payment of this money. So I do think it was tied to the nuclear negotiations in this way. But I think you have seen a real cycle of the Obama administration trying to put kind of past conflicts behind that were brewing with the Iranians.

But it’s also raised a lot of questions, because, if you give that much money in cash to the Iranian government, there is a real fear this money went to the elite military unit the Revolutionary Guard. It’s very hard for them to move money around the Middle East to fund Hezbollah and Lebanon, the Assad regime.

If you give them that much cash, you can move that cash to these types of regimes. And I think that’s part of the reason why this cash payment has become so controversial and is a political now.

MARGARET WARNER: And, of course, it can’t be traced.

You spent a lot of time talking to not only American officials, but Iranian officials, and getting to know them well. After these two years, do you think that any sort of trust developed in these negotiations that will survive it?

JAY SOLOMON: I do think it’s significant that there was so much engagement between John Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif.

I think the problem is, Iran is really in many ways a dual system. The U.S. was talking with very Western-oriented, English-speaking diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, but we know that the policies are really driven by the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards.

And there is still very much no contact whatsoever between the U.S. side and the kind of hard-line camp that really runs the country. So, history will show whether there was a narrowing. But I think the kind of rhetoric coming out of the supreme leader has not softened whatsoever.

And that raises questions whether this is kind of another transactional part or it really does lead to some approach normal — at rapprochement on some level.

MARGARET WARNER: So, future presidents will have to deal with it, no doubt.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The United States and Iran have been at odds for 37 years, a standoff that continues even as President Obama signed on to a deal this past summer that sharply limits Iran’s nuclear development.

Just today, as we reported, the U.S. Senate voted to extend sanctions against Tehran.

MARGARET WARNER: What struck me about this book was your portrayal of President Obama as obsessed with Iran and with getting a nuclear deal really from the beginning. Where did that come from?

JAY SOLOMON: So, I really think, when he came in, he saw the need to stop, kind of defuse the Iran weapons program, and the need to kind of avert another U.S. war as converging.

We didn’t know at the time that he was sending secret letters to the supreme leader…

MARGARET WARNER: Yes.

JAY SOLOMON: … that he was really kind of setting up a diplomatic track and was just hoping the Iranians would bite. So, it really was a campaign issue that became a driving vision for him in his first year.

MARGARET WARNER: So, President Obama got his nuclear deal, but he did pay a really big diplomatic price, didn’t he, on many fronts.

JAY SOLOMON: When I was doing the research, it really did kind of dominate so many different factions of his policy.

The negotiations with the Iranians started in secret, which — basically behind the backs of the Israelis and Arabs, which really has continued to this day to serve as a big source of tension with the Obama administration.

Of course, they say there was no connection whatsoever between our Syria policy and the decision not to use airstrikes and our Iran policy. But we have seen kind of since 2013, when Obama backed away from airstrikes, almost kind of the U.S. moving increasingly towards a policy that’s in alignment in some ways with both the Russians and Iranians.

And President Obama has sent messages to the supreme leader in letters and through the Pentagon that, basically, we’re not targeting Assad.

MARGARET WARNER: In fact, Iranian officials had let the White House know that that could completely screw up the talks.

JAY SOLOMON: Yes, the diplomats who were involved were saying, even if we wanted to keep this diplomatic track open, if you start bombing the Assad regime, which really provides Iran strategic depth in the Middle East and its closest Arab ally, it will be difficult for us to continue.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, we have this latest controversy with what has turned out to be $1.7 billion that the U.S. in cash has paid to Iran in the last few months.

It’s about a completely separate negotiation at The Hague, but is it or is it not connected to this nuclear deal?

JAY SOLOMON: Well, I think it all did kind of converge.

On January 16, the agreement was basically implemented. And the next day, we had a prisoner swap and the payment of this money. So I do think it was tied to the nuclear negotiations in this way. But I think you have seen a real cycle of the Obama administration trying to put kind of past conflicts behind that were brewing with the Iranians.

But it’s also raised a lot of questions, because, if you give that much money in cash to the Iranian government, there is a real fear this money went to the elite military unit the Revolutionary Guard. It’s very hard for them to move money around the Middle East to fund Hezbollah and Lebanon, the Assad regime.

If you give them that much cash, you can move that cash to these types of regimes. And I think that’s part of the reason why this cash payment has become so controversial and is a political now.

MARGARET WARNER: And, of course, it can’t be traced.

You spent a lot of time talking to not only American officials, but Iranian officials, and getting to know them well. After these two years, do you think that any sort of trust developed in these negotiations that will survive it?

JAY SOLOMON: I do think it’s significant that there was so much engagement between John Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif.

I think the problem is, Iran is really in many ways a dual system. The U.S. was talking with very Western-oriented, English-speaking diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, but we know that the policies are really driven by the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards.

And there is still very much no contact whatsoever between the U.S. side and the kind of hard-line camp that really runs the country. So, history will show whether there was a narrowing. But I think the kind of rhetoric coming out of the supreme leader has not softened whatsoever.

And that raises questions whether this is kind of another transactional part or it really does lead to some approach normal — at rapprochement on some level.

MARGARET WARNER: So, future presidents will have to deal with it, no doubt.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/deals-rhetoric-behind-u-s-relationship-iran/feed/05:33In his new book, “The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles and the Secret Deals that Reshaped the Middle East,” The Wall Street Journal's Jay Solomon discusses the U.S. power struggle with Iran, including the Obama administration’s nuclear deal and controversial cash delivery and whether Iran complicated the American stance on Assad. Solomon sits down with Margaret Warner to discuss his work.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: The United States and Iran have been at odds for 37 years, a standoff that continues even as President Obama signed on to a deal this past summer that sharply limits Iran&#8217;s nuclear development. Just PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/deals-rhetoric-behind-u-s-relationship-iran/Castro’s funeral procession retraces Revolution’s routehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/5SoshW6hlK8/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/castros-funeral-procession-retraces-revolutions-route/#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 23:35:09 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=199979

HARI SREENIVASAN: The ashes of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro began a long procession across the island nation today, from Havana to Santiago, where Castro declared victory in the revolution he led in 1959.

His funeral will be held there Sunday, ending nine days of mourning since his death last Friday.

“NewsHour” special correspondent Nick Schifrin is in Havana reporting for us this week, joins me now.

Nick, let’s talk a little bit about the route. Why is it so significant?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, Hari, it’s the same route that he took in 1959, only in reverse.

And it’s really that trip that cemented Fidel Castro as a kind of heroic figure in Cuba, almost a destined savior of the country. That’s certainly the image that he tried to portray, came in on a boat, descended from the mountains, won battles and won over people with his speeches, tried to really portray himself as a messiah for the country. And at least along the route today, that image of him really survives.

HARI SREENIVASAN: There aren’t a lot of freedoms to speak out against the government, but what are people along the route saying?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes.

Along the route, people use the same exact words, my leader, my father. And even critics of Fidel Castro say that those sentiments are genuine after so many decades of his rule. For example, Hari, I talked to one family, three generations.

The uncle used to be a Castro bodyguard. The grandmother told me that Castro gave her more opportunities. An aunt told me that he really believed in human rights. And the granddaughter, 23-year-old Giselle Gallego, said that the revolution should go on, the ideals should go on, and that there shouldn’t be drastic change in Cuba, even though the father of the revolution has now died.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Did you hear any voices of dissent?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes. They are few and far between, but they are important to listen to.

And I spoke to one dissenter, as he calls himself, just a few hours ago. His name is Carlos Miraros Falcon. He says there is no freedom of speech and no freedom of multiple parties.

And what that means, Hari, is that the criticism of the government remains rare and that the opposition remains fractured. And I asked him whether there is any chance of change now that Fidel Castro is dead. He said most likely not. That’s because Fidel’s younger brother Raul has been running the country as president since 2008.

But he did point to one date, 2018. That is the year that Raul Castro promises to step down. One of two things could happen there. He will step down, but he will remain head of the party. That means more status question.

Or it is possible, this dissident said, that Raul could step down and there could be an opposition leader who emerges.

HARI SREENIVASAN: When you talk to people on the route, they’re very quickly aware that you’re an American. Does the conversation walk into the territory of the new president-elect?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Look, I think that there have been changes over the last few years. And more Americans have been here, so they’re more used to us.

Certainly, there is some fear of president-elect Trump, most specifically because there is mostly unanimity over the deal that Raul Castro and President Obama struck in the last couple years, a kind of detente, and they don’t want president-elect Trump to take that away.

But critics do point out one thing, that there have been four times as many detentions this year already as in all of 2010. That’s according to the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission.

And those people who point that out point to President-elect Trump’s tweets saying that he would terminate the deal unless Cuba is willing to improve it. There are some people who are hoping he actually does that, but, in general, people want the trend of the last few years to continue.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The ashes of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro began a long procession across the island nation today, from Havana to Santiago, where Castro declared victory in the revolution he led in 1959.

His funeral will be held there Sunday, ending nine days of mourning since his death last Friday.

“NewsHour” special correspondent Nick Schifrin is in Havana reporting for us this week, joins me now.

Nick, let’s talk a little bit about the route. Why is it so significant?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, Hari, it’s the same route that he took in 1959, only in reverse.

And it’s really that trip that cemented Fidel Castro as a kind of heroic figure in Cuba, almost a destined savior of the country. That’s certainly the image that he tried to portray, came in on a boat, descended from the mountains, won battles and won over people with his speeches, tried to really portray himself as a messiah for the country. And at least along the route today, that image of him really survives.

HARI SREENIVASAN: There aren’t a lot of freedoms to speak out against the government, but what are people along the route saying?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes.

Along the route, people use the same exact words, my leader, my father. And even critics of Fidel Castro say that those sentiments are genuine after so many decades of his rule. For example, Hari, I talked to one family, three generations.

The uncle used to be a Castro bodyguard. The grandmother told me that Castro gave her more opportunities. An aunt told me that he really believed in human rights. And the granddaughter, 23-year-old Giselle Gallego, said that the revolution should go on, the ideals should go on, and that there shouldn’t be drastic change in Cuba, even though the father of the revolution has now died.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Did you hear any voices of dissent?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes. They are few and far between, but they are important to listen to.

And I spoke to one dissenter, as he calls himself, just a few hours ago. His name is Carlos Miraros Falcon. He says there is no freedom of speech and no freedom of multiple parties.

And what that means, Hari, is that the criticism of the government remains rare and that the opposition remains fractured. And I asked him whether there is any chance of change now that Fidel Castro is dead. He said most likely not. That’s because Fidel’s younger brother Raul has been running the country as president since 2008.

But he did point to one date, 2018. That is the year that Raul Castro promises to step down. One of two things could happen there. He will step down, but he will remain head of the party. That means more status question.

Or it is possible, this dissident said, that Raul could step down and there could be an opposition leader who emerges.

HARI SREENIVASAN: When you talk to people on the route, they’re very quickly aware that you’re an American. Does the conversation walk into the territory of the new president-elect?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Look, I think that there have been changes over the last few years. And more Americans have been here, so they’re more used to us.

Certainly, there is some fear of president-elect Trump, most specifically because there is mostly unanimity over the deal that Raul Castro and President Obama struck in the last couple years, a kind of detente, and they don’t want president-elect Trump to take that away.

But critics do point out one thing, that there have been four times as many detentions this year already as in all of 2010. That’s according to the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission.

And those people who point that out point to President-elect Trump’s tweets saying that he would terminate the deal unless Cuba is willing to improve it. There are some people who are hoping he actually does that, but, in general, people want the trend of the last few years to continue.